


How to be Alive Again

by bennabi



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Fluff, Dubious Consent, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Smut, soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 157,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26513881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bennabi/pseuds/bennabi
Summary: Three years after Calamity Ganon is sealed away, Hyrule is beginning to mend itself slowly but surely. In reality, there's more time to breathe, but it feels like there's less oxygen.Zelda and Link explore how to come to terms with everything they've been through as they figure out how to be functional people in the world three years after Calamity Ganon is sealed away. Something that started out as a rewrite one-shot of some smut, but turned into something much more.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 160





	1. The Book

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The courting book trope.

The sound of Link’s voice was almost always a treat to be heard. The princess especially liked it when he laughed so hard he snorted, or in the rarest of moments where he would sometimes make small noises in his sleep, or in even rarer moments at the top of the chambers in the tallest tower that loomed over Castle Town where he would be so lost in thought that his guard would lower and he could be easily startled. 

The only times hearing his voice was anything less than a treat was earth-shatteringly opposite those happy moments. These were saved for agony, a thing Zelda especially hated seeing her guard in. It was saved for when he was tackled, and beaten, slashed, and stabbed; it was saved for the most desperate seconds before he would narrowly avoid a fatal blow, and the realization of his mortality would sink in, his eyes would grow wide, and the smallest of whimpers would leave his throat that he would profusely deny if the princess ever mentioned them. Not out of embarrassment, surely, but because he knew that those were moments where he forgot his duty and his charges, and thought nothing more than what infinite blackness may await him on the other side of the weapon coming at him. Where he did not dodge the blow to save the princess from danger, but simply because he feared for himself. 

Sometimes it was easy to forget Link was just as mortal as the rest of them. That despite the calm, controlled face he always wore, he had thoughts and feelings beneath the layers of tough skin. That through his blue eyes there was a thinking beast who formulated opinions, and not just a dog who wished nothing more than to please his master. But when a battle had been fought, and both stood alive and on the winning side, his layers melted away, and the intensity behind those blue eyes would stab directly into Zelda’s soul when her own met his gaze. As he signed wildly with his hands, asking her if she was unharmed, all she could look at was the worry, the hurt, and the fear deep in his eyes, underneath a thick layer of lashes. 

It was often there that she learned to truly read her personal guard. The voice was a powerful thing, and a lie, misinformation, or something as simple as glossing over a detail could be deciphered through the speaker’s tone, but because Link never spoke, Zelda had figured out how to tell whether he was doing any of those things by meeting his gaze after watching his hands speak for him. She had confidence that her guard would never lie to her, but half-truths were his favorite when situations that he wanted to control were simply out of his hands and he wanted to protect her from these things. When that happened, she noticed his eyes flicker downwards, then hold her gaze a moment too long. Additionally, when he simply did not want to talk about something, he seemed to look just above her eyes, normally at her forehead, while he signed that nothing was the matter. 

After spending so much time with him, she found it easier and easier to pick apart, and soon it came as naturally as breathing. It used to take her an extra second to check if he meant something, but now it only took a quick glance up to confirm a doubt. 

Contrarily, this meant the princess could also tell when her guard truly meant something. Actions spoke for Link most of the time when he couldn’t turn a thought into motions of his hands. This could be seen when he was frustrated, where he might sign so quickly that even he could not tell where he was going, and he would throw his hands in the air. When Zelda had lost her appetite for a day while they were traveling, and Link simply could not convince her to eat food with his frantic signs, he had grabbed the spoon out of the pot of stew and thrust it in her direction with furrowed, yet concerned, brows. 

This was especially true when words were too inaccurate in meaning to express how he felt, the limitations of language causing him to act where he could not explain. An example of this was when they had traveled to Lake Hylia, and after a small scare with a tree beetle, had ended up wrapping the princess in his arms and tugging her away. It was here that he had kissed her for the first time, a chaste brush of their lips that ended as soon as it started. He had pushed her away after that, blush evident only on his ears as he covered his mouth with one hand and attempted to apologize to her by signing with only his left hand as he looked anywhere but at her. 

Months had passed since then, and now she found herself on a bench in the middle of the castle’s rose garden listening to the shrill sound of wind scraping through the mountains and inhaling the scent of incoming rain. It was a short reprieve after several consecutive hours of research. She had hoped that the nice weather she woke up with would last into the evening, and she would still have time to go out and picnic with her guard on the grassy plains. Alas, fortune had not graced her today, and she let her eyelids fall heavily as the sound of thunder rumbled across the hills, through her legs, and up her spine. 

Quick footsteps approached her from behind, and she turned to see the familiar blue Champion’s tunic and blonde hair pulled into a half-ponytail approaching. 

_There you are, princess_ , he signed frantically, his eyes flicking around her. _You were not in the library. Why is no one else with you? Where are the other guards?_

Link had been training recruits in the barracks for the better part of the day, so Zelda had been left in the hands of three other guardsmen who, in Zelda’s very unbiased opinion, were not a fourth the warrior Link was. 

“Sorry to have worried you. They were hovering too close for comfort, so I slipped out of their sight not too long ago,” she explained, hoping to ease some of his panic. 

Link straightened his posture, and backed off a step as if afraid to also be considered too close for comfort. 

_You should take cover, Princess. Rain clouds are headed in this direction, and you may get wet._ He outstretched a hand to her where she sat, a kind smile gracing his handsome features. 

His palm faced upwards, tilted slightly in her direction, and she took the briefest of moments to appreciate the calloused skin from wielding his blade, and the stripe of a scar near the base of his thumb. She accepted his offer by placing her delicate gloved hand into his, lifting the skirt of her dress slightly so as not to step on it. “Thank you, Sir Link.”

He bowed respectfully, allowing Zelda to take the lead and followed after her a few steps behind. Disliking the formalities, she slowed her pace just long enough for Link to step up next to her, and they walked side by side through the corridor that led to the gardens. 

“Have you eaten?” She asked him, clasping her hands in front of her. 

Her guard shook his head, then signed, _No, but are you hungry, Princess?_

She had had food brought to the library when she had been researching, but she couldn’t recall exactly how long ago that had been. 

Finally, after her thoughtful pause, she concluded, “I suppose I am a bit peckish. Would you care to join me in the dining hall?”

He smiled, nodding his head. He visibly relaxed as they walked, Zelda noticing how his shoulders gradually became less tense the farther they moved away from the gardens. She supposed that outside there was inherently more danger, and quite frankly the boy always seemed to be wound rather tightly to begin with. It caused joy to rush through her veins knowing that Link could relax as much as he seemed to inside the castle, even if it was only because there were less angles for attack and not just because it was supposedly the safest place in the world for her to reside in. 

They chatted idly about their days as they found their way to the dining hall, and Link was careful to notice the way Zelda would occasionally brush his arm with her own, and had to keep himself in check when he caught her staring at him before looking away with pink-stained cheeks. 

The two had been officially courting for some months now after the slip on Link’s part at Lake Hylia. Zelda hadn’t always been affectionate towards Link, especially as she was preparing to fight Calamity Ganon more than one hundred years ago, but in the time since that catastrophic event had passed, she had grown fond of him. At first it started out as a platonic affection, but as he matured, she watched the short, ruffled warrior turn into a force that one would be so unfortunate to trifle with. He had also been blessed by the goddess with unmatched skeletal structure that with age shaped a handsome face, broad shoulders, and height to match - especially since she sealed away the Malice blighting the castle. Not only that, but he was kind, trustworthy, loyal, and gentle in ways that she never noticed while she was training, which only increased exponentially as he protected her time and time again on their journeys. It was inevitable, really, for her feelings to turn to a different type of affection, the same kind that would send butterflies free in her stomach when he smiled at her, or caused a blush to spread across her cheeks when he removed his shirt on a hot day during training. 

It came off as a shock when their lips had first met in that summer at Lake Hylia because Zelda had never entertained the thought that the guard may have had mutual feelings for her until she was suddenly overwhelmed by him in a way that wasn’t just for her protection. When he had broken away from her so suddenly, it scared her so deeply that her soul shook and she thought that perhaps he had regretted what he’d done. But she didn’t miss the elation in his eyes when she had pulled his hand away from his mouth after he had ripped away and placed a kiss on the corner of his mouth. 

After that day, the guard had stolen off to the library on his days off, dodging Zelda’s questions about what it was he was looking for. He had mentioned research, and being the study junky she was, the Princess had tried to join him, and felt a pang of disappointment hit her in the heart when he had denied her request. It would take a week for her to accidentally find out that he had relieved the library of a book with the title _Royal Courting: 3rd Edition_ etched into its worn spine with faded golden print, and only a few seconds for it to set in what his intentions were. It was all very sweet that he was learning how to do this properly, despite its old-fashioned implications, and even harder not to mention that she had found out about the many rules he had to apparently follow to properly court her. 

She did find the strength, however, to see what type of boundaries she could break down now that she knew his goals. Never enough to make him uncomfortable, of course, but enough of dipping her toes in the water to gouge his reactions to certain things. So after asking him to accompany her on a walk around Castle Town, she had accidentally threaded her arm into the crook of his elbow. With her gloves that traveled all the way up to just below her shoulders, there was no actual physical contact, but she didn’t miss the blush that stained his cheeks and tips of his ears. 

As they progressed in their relationship, Link seemed to let go of his tight grip on the rules, happy to let Zelda take the lead where she felt brave enough to take it. Each night he would walk her to her chambers, kiss the back of her hand, then bid her goodnight. 

But one day Zelda’s dreams had been visited by her guard at Lake Hylia, remembering how warm his lips felt against her own. Only now she could feel that they were slightly chapped, and Link would press against her a little harder, and he would not pull away. When she woke, she was restless the whole day, until he was about to bid her goodnight as he always did after the sun had long since set, and she grabbed his face to pull him into a kiss. It was awkward, and their noses collided before they properly tilted their heads for a more comfortable angle. He had been taken by surprise, but reciprocated eagerly as soon as his senses returned to him. He allowed his hands to find her waist, pulling her against his body as she melted into his touch and buried his hands into his hair. 

Since then they had stolen kisses around corners, playful swipes of skin on skin, and red cheeks when one caught the other gazing in their direction. It never progressed too far, as Link still clutched onto the rules, if even by the thread, of that damned courting book. Particularly the intimate ones. Neither seemed to have any experience, but both had enough of a sexual education to understand what reacted to certain actions. And the rules expressly warned that intimacy of any kind was prohibited until marriage. 

So to Zelda’s complete horror, Link would separate too soon whenever they seemed to get close to intimacy. Granted, they had only crossed the borders of touching a month ago, and both were enjoying the ride as much as they were their partner. There was no pressure to go any farther, but it still frustrated the Princess when Link would push away from her after having his tongue down her throat and making her temperature spike. He would always make a quick getaway the second she got just a little hot, usually vomiting up an excuse about training. At first she was worried that he was uncomfortable with her advances, that she had pushed him too far. But she could tell this wasn’t the case, because even though Zelda would more often than not initiate the contact, Link would be the one to pull her closer. It was at the point where their hips might touch, even the lightest of pressure, that she could feel that she wasn’t the only one being pleasantly overwhelmed by the attention. But that was when he shook her off and ran, leaving her irritated, hot, and heavy. At this point she would just relieve herself privately, seethe for an hour, then inevitably forgive him. 

But the more this happened, the more pent up Zelda was becoming, and enough was enough. They were going to talk about it like the mature somewhat-adults that they were, because they were both capable of making sane, rational decisions concerning their private life. 

So when Link arrived at the library at her summon, he bowed respectfully, signed a greeting, then took the seat she motioned for him to take. 

“We need to talk,” she began, gaging his reaction by staring into the deep blue of his eyes. 

The guard visibly stiffened, raising his hands to begin to sign something, but Zelda raised her hand gently in a motion to stop, and Link dropped them back to his lap. 

She sucked in a deep breath, calming her heart that slammed against her chest nervously. “Do you hate it?”

 _Your Highness?_ He was confused, evident by the furrow in his brow. 

“When we… when we are intimate. Do you hate it?” She tried again, forcing herself to meet his gaze even as her face burned. 

The girl had never seen someone shake their head so fast in her life, his hands rising and signing something too quickly for her to pick up except for “favorite,” “joy,” and the special sign he used for her name. 

Before she could respond, Link grabbed her hands, and held them tightly in his own, lacing their fingers. Startled, Zelda held his gaze with curiosity, but was only met with intensity. He kept that for a few moments before releasing her hands long enough to sign only one phrase. 

_I love you._

Warmth spread through her, happiness clawing at the anxiety she had harbored, before unceremoniously blurting “I love you,” back at him with such ferocity that the Champion flinched backwards slightly. 

“Sorry, sorry, too loud,” she concluded, cringing at herself for getting so carried away in the library. 

His face was pink as blood surged beneath his skin, the endearing dust on the tips of his ears returning. 

_I do not hate it, Zelda. I do not want to push you into anything you do not want,_ he signed, this time slower, then scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“B-but I do want it!” She exclaimed, this time more mindful to keep her voice down. “It is you who runs off.”

He sighed, scrubbing his face for a moment before reaching into his satchel and pulling out the courting guide. He flipped to the page that forbade intimacy until marriage, and Zelda forgot for a moment that she was not supposed to know that he had this book. He jabbed a finger at the paragraph. 

“This is- this is old-fashioned nonsense, Link! You must understand that no one follows these rules anymore. As long as we both are of correct mind to consent, there should not be any laws that stop us from doing anything. Nor anything that puts a name to our relationship. It… devoids it of meaning. Nothing and no one should be able to define what we are other than ourselves,” she reasoned, desperation starting to lace her voice. “I will not do anything you are uncomfortable with, and I trust you will do the same, but-“ 

She was cut off by waving hands. _Princess, I did not mean this to put words to what we have. I agree that what we have is our own, but this means a lot to me, and I want to do this correctly. I do not wish to ruin it by overstepping._

Zelda sighed. “I can assure you, you would not be overstepping or ruining anything. And like I said, I trust you, and hopefully you have that same trust in me.”

 _Of course,_ he signed quickly, his blue eyes reflecting strong resolve. 

“Then allow me to express that you are free to do as you please, and if that includes following this book’s rules, then I will respect that. But if you did decide to continue, I guarantee you nothing would be ruined.” She smiled gently, and Link returned it, both their faces a shade darker than normal. 

The rest of the day was busy. Link returned to the barracks for his training sessions, and Zelda was pulled away to complete her duties and private research. It wasn’t until long after the sun dipped below the horizon that the princess finally dropped her pen and began making her way out of the library. The three guards assigned to her followed her until she reached the eastern corridor, where she almost bumped into Link as he rounded the corner. He rushed an apology, promising to watch more carefully where he was going in the future. She waved it away, insisting that she didn’t mind, then waved off the three guardsmen who retreated back to their quarters. 

Link led her through the castle until they reached her chambers, and, like always, began to reach for her hand to kiss. She felt disappointment rise in her chest, discouraged by this act of courtesy that their talk had meant nothing to him. She prepared to feel dispirited, when all of a sudden he grabbed her waist and pulled her against him. He shuffled forward a few steps, invading the privacy of her room and whipped around to pin her against the wall next to the heavy wooden door. A surprised squeak left her throat, swallowed by a hungry kiss that followed as he ducked his head down to capture her lips. 

Her hands immediately sought the back of his neck, her left knitting itself in his hair while her right drew patterns behind his ear. She opened her mouth, and his tongue entered as if it belonged there, and they fell into their usual rhythm. Their tongues danced, and she would occasionally languidly suck before they had to break for air. Then they would dive back in, as if starved for each other the same way they starved for air after locking lips once again. 

Despite having her trapped against the wall, Link never had her physically pinned. There was space enough that if she wanted to, she could push him away or duck out, and the grip on his waist, although tight, was not possessive as much as it was appreciative. Zelda marveled in that sentiment, that even as he was making an effort to take the next step he was cognisant enough to allow her options, and give her space to say no. 

But that was the farthest thing from her mind right now, and she removed her left hand from his dirty blond locks to pull him closer by gripping at his Champions tunic and tugging Link forward. He made a startled sound from the back of his throat as their bodies met, and a rush of heat traveled up her spine. After all, his voice was a treat to be savored, as it was rarely ever heard. Additionally, she could now feel the tent he was beginning to pitch in his trousers, and with their bodies flush together like they were now, giving an experimental roll of her hips forward was no large task. 

Zelda let out a soft noise, and Link allowed himself a low groan before freezing entirely. Her hand tightened around his neck on instinct, fear suddenly gripping her. This was usually when he took off, but now that they had talked, he didn’t push away like he usually did. He was, however, a bit frozen in place. 

“Please,” Zelda started before she could catch the plea in her throat. “Stay.”

She held his gaze, trying to read what his eyes were telling her. They were steeled, but gentle. They looked a lot like they did after they were attacked and he was ensuring she was okay. 

_Positive?_ He signed quickly, putting space between them again as he caught his breath. 

“Yes,” she sighed dreamily, giving a gentle tug on his tunic again. 

_Absolutely?_

“Completely,” she breathed. 

_Entirely? He grinned wolfishly, knowing she’d take the bait._

She grabbed him this time, spinning them around and kicking the door shut as she directed them towards the bed. Zelda nudged him gently until his knees hit the side of the wooden bed frame and he landed on his back on the soft mattress. She straddled him, his hands flying up to her waist steady her as her skirt bunched up at her legs. With a sly smile, she leaned down and captured his lips again, inviting his tongue into her mouth once again. 

As they separated, they found themselves shorter of breath each time, and as they danced back and forth with each other, Zelda’s hands began searching for the end of the Champion’s tunic, grabbing at it and pulling it up. It took all of three seconds for Link to dislodge himself from the clothing; three seconds too long as Zelda dove back in for more. Link’s hands left her waist to hurriedly remove his gauntlets, clumsily unclasping them and tossing them to the side along with his training gloves. She already had her hands pulling insistently on his undershirt, and that was shucked just as quickly. 

Now with the expanse of skin in front of her, she allowed herself to run hands over his defined form, appreciating every dip that lined muscle and every patch of extra soft skin that were undoubtedly scars but could not be seen in the dim light of the single candle on her bedside table in the far corner. 

Deftly, his hands began wandering up the back of her dress, searching for the ties that held it in place. He tugged at the delicate laces, taking heed not to damage the dress as he carefully undid each tie until it fell off her shoulders softly. 

Zelda began to pull away as she felt it begin to slip, Link’s mouth following hers with a soft groan of disapproval as she removed herself from his lap. The confusion in his expression faded, however, as she stepped out of her dress, now only left in stockings, her gloves, brassiere, and undergarments. The gloves followed the dress’s suit, then quickly the stockings. Despite the way her face burned, she tried to make a show of it, deliberately peeling each stocking and glove off her extremities with slow, purposeful movements. With a quick glance back at Link she saw him propped up on his elbows, watching her with clear interest. In those blue eyes there was a dark hunger, and they swept over every inch of skin she revealed to him as each garment fell to the floor. 

She reached for her brassiere, making to take that off as well, but Link lunged forward, grabbing her waist and pulling her back into his lap. She yelped, hands clutching his shoulders for stability as he claimed her lips once again. His tongue was shoved into her mouth, and instead of staying there like she expected, Link broke apart too soon, and she chased his lips like he had before. 

Instead, he attached himself to the corner of her mouth, then to her jawline, and down to her pulse point where he gently hit into the skin and sucked. A broken sound left Zelda’s lips, sinking her nails into his bare shoulders. 

Calloused fingers drifted from the princess’s waist to where her brassiere held, and with a few movements of his fingers he had it falling limply against her arms. He smoothed it off, continuing his trail down her neck, and she breathed his name when his hands began kneading into the soft flesh of her breasts. He growled in response, his grip tightening. She arched into his grasp, a hand traveling to his hair to clutch desperately. 

She felt dizzy. Intoxicated by something she could not name as sparks of pleasure rippled through her body and pooled in the bottom of her belly. Everything around them had melted away, and the only thing that existed now was the way his thumbs flicked against her rosy nipples and the hickey he was sucking into her collarbone. The only other clear message in her head was that she was with Link, the one she had pined after since before his 100 year sleep, and that behind the hunger and desire in his eyes there was a tender love that burned through her gaze. 

Zelda moaned, her hips rocking forward into his. Suddenly his ministrations paused, and Link groaned brokenly into her skin. Pride swelled in her chest, loving how often she could pull his mostly unused voice from him.

She wanted to keep doing that. 

As she panted when his efforts picked up again, her hands began creeping down, running over the sides of his body then shifting to the front where she found room to scrape fingers down his abdomen. Just slightly lower was his belt, and her fingers grasped at the metal clasp. His hips involuntarily gave a small thrust in her direction, and his hands stopped moving as he watched her with half-lidded eyes as she removed the belt and cast it gently to the side. 

“Good?” She asked before she made to pick at the hem of his trousers, slowly moving off his lap and sinking to the ground between his legs. 

A hand that had previously been on her breasts leapt to his face where he used the back of it to block the redness that grew there as he nodded. 

With that, she began to peel his trousers off, revealing his boxers. He shook off the pants as they came down, but watched darkly as Zelda coyly paused at the top of his undergarments. 

He touched her on the shoulder to make sure the princess was looking before Link signed, You do not have to. 

Zelda bit her lip, furrowed her eyebrows, and without saying anything tugged the hem back as his cock jumped free. Link blew out a quick succession of air at the small relief, and avoided her eyes as they ate up the image in front of her. 

With a tentative hand, Zelda mustered all of her courage and reached forward, wrapping her palm and fingers around the organ. It jumped slightly in her hand, something she hadn’t fully expected. A shuddering sigh left his mouth, and she looked to his face to gouge every reaction. His jaw was slack, his eyes half-closed, and his face a shade pinker than normal. His hair had been mussed by her previous tugs and pulls, and his ponytail had all but fallen apart. The Champion, a great warrior and the savior of the realm, was now putty in the Princess’s hands — completely pliant. 

The sight caused another spike of arousal to shoot down her spine, and she turned back to her guard’s cock in front of her. It wasn’t exactly what she had expected, not that she had spent much time pouring over such small details in her fantasies. She expected his skin to be just as rough as everywhere else on his body, to be coarse or rough, when in reality it was silky and burning in her grasp. 

On the top of the mushroomed head was a drop of liquid that rested on his slit, and without realizing, her thumb had reached up to smear it across him. Link’s head tipped back, and he hummed low in his throat. 

Zelda had no experience in any of this, and to her knowledge neither did the Champion. She at least was somewhat educated in sex, but not so far to know exactly what to do. Of course she knew that this would go inside of her, but what about when it wasn’t? 

Apparently she had paused too long, simply holding his girth with a pensive look on her face when her wrist was gently touched. Embarrassed, she quickly released him. 

“Sorry, sorry… I am… unsure what to, um, do.” Her voice trailed off and shame and embarrassment crawled up her spine. If it was one thing she had always been good at, it was research. Why, after all this time trying to get Link this far, hadn’t she thought about figuring that out before they’d gotten to this point? It was completely irrational; it was absolutely brainless! 

Before her anxiety could crush her into shrinking back any farther than she already had, Link’s finger tapped the wrist he had touched before, and the Princess met his gaze. 

_Do you want to stop? He signed, a tender smile on his lips._

The gentleness of his gaze was what ripped Zelda’s heart out the most. Because in the depths of his soul she could see that no matter what happened, Link wouldn’t be disappointed with her, wouldn’t be frustrated or angry. 

She shook her head, but couldn’t bring herself to find words. 

Mercifully, Link continued. _Do you want me to show you?_

The implications of this were entirely too hot, and waves of heat re-flooded the Princess’s body. Ever the scholar, happy to learn how her lover liked to be touched, was killing two birds with one stone. So, naturally, she nodded vigorously. 

He chuckled, then held out his hand, palm outstretched. Her eyes drifted over the same scar she had stared at before, and she took a calming breath before placing her own into his. 

Link guided her back to his cock which still stood proudly, and he manipulated her hand to wrap around him once again. He covered the back of the hand with his palm, and he released a shuddering breath as he began gently pulling her up his shaft, and down to his base. 

His demonstration lasted only a few seconds before she got the hang of it, and he released her to dig his fingers into the sheets beside him. 

Zelda learned quickly what he liked through experimentation, but was careful not to try anything that might hurt him. With every upwards pull, she found that a trace along the underside of the tip would make him gasp, and with every downwards drag he would grunt or growl when she twisted her wrist. He had flinched slightly when she tried tightening her grip, so she abandoned that as soon as she saw the small movement. 

Slowly, she found a rhythm, and found herself able to follow it with greater pace. As minutes passed, Link’s breathing increasingly became more labored, and his grip on the linens beneath him tightened into white-knuckles fists. He furrowed his brow a small bit more as time went on, and the Princess found herself indulging in his pleasures expression perhaps a bit too much. At times, his hips would flex forward, as if of their own volition, and pride spread across her each time it happened. 

Suddenly he grabbed her wrist, causing her to jump. 

Panic washed over him for a split second. _Sorry, Princess, I did not mean to frighten you, he signed frantically, releasing his hold._

“It is alright, do not apologize. Was I, um, doing it wrong?” She asked apprehensively, slightly afraid of his answer. 

_Not at all, I just was not going to last if you had kept going,_ he replied, clearly short of breath. 

“O-oh.” Blush spread all the way down to her neck, and she allowed him space to breathe for a moment. The second she added an inch of space, however, he looped a hand around her waist and claimed her lips hungrily. Her hands grabbed at his neck, and the Champion used the temporary respite to flip them. 

Now with her guard on top of her, Zelda found herself feeling incredibly small. He towered over her, barely illuminated by the flickering orange light coming from the small candle behind them. There were too many shadows to clearly see all of him, but his eyes were too bright to miss when he opened them for a moment before latching himself back onto her throat. 

A moan was coaxed out of her as his hands began sliding down her sides and toying with the sides of her last remaining undergarment at her hips. A finger traced the sharp bone that jutted out, but he made no advance to continue. His right palm smoothed across the milky skin of her stomach, drifting down to her navel before skirting around the fabric once more in favor of tracing patterns into her waist. When his left did the same thing, she huffed softly. 

“Link, please,” came her indignant plea, too worked up by the burning sensation that followed the searing paths of his hands. 

She felt a smirk against her neck, and he traveled up to the junction between her shoulder and collarbone to suck on unmarked skin there as his fingers dipped below the hem. In his strong arms, and pinned below the one she trusted most, she trembled with anticipation as he passed soft blonde curls and into the folds of her nethers. She leaned when such rough skin passed over the sensitive cluster of nerves, and it seemed as if he made mental note of that as he continued downwards, guided by the wetness of her lower sex. Zelda shuddered, clutching his shoulders tightly as he gently prodded her lower lips until he found her entrance, warm and wet. 

She had touched herself before, but it was nothing compared to Link’s larger, rougher fingers. When he sunk one inside of her, she moaned loudly, but was silenced by his lips crashing into hers. He began experimentally thrusting, dragging the pad of his finger against her walls, and curling it upwards. If Zelda hadn’t known what Link always got up to since he was almost always three steps behind her, she would believe that he’d done this before with how well he used his hand. 

“More,” she gasped as he continued his ministrations, her breath fanning across his face. 

Never one to disobey an order, a second finger was added, and a slight burn ripped a strangled cry from her throat. Her walls fluttered around him, and he did well to slow down as she adjusted. If two was a struggle, how in Hylia was she going to fit him? 

She took a stuttering breath, opening eyes she hadn’t realized were closed and met the stare of ocean irises. There was an unspoken question within them, and she nodded slightly, reassuring him that she was fine. 

Newly encouraged, he sped up his thrusts now, and remembering his mental note moved his thumb up to flick at her bundle of nerves. Her back arched like a bow, and she let out a cry. A growl resounded in Link’s chest in response, curling his fingers in a beckoning manner that threw the Princess into a fit of pleasure. 

A knot began to form in the pit of her belly, a precipice so appealing but was five steps away from the edge. Suddenly she couldn’t be closer to him. Her body yearned to be pressed against him, and she grasped at him to come impossibly closer. Their chests were flush, bodies meshing perfectly save for the room he left between them at the hip to make room for his hand. 

With every thrust of his fingers, Zelda climbed higher and higher, closer and closer to the relief she just could not reach. It was so close — barely out of her grasp. 

“Please,” Zelda begged brokenly, not knowing exactly what she was begging for. All she knew was that she needed more. She was wound tightly like a spring, but instead of the tension releasing like it should, she only wound tighter. 

However, Link seemed to understand, and with a grunt into the junction he had been working a hickey into before, he bit down as he increased his pace, his thumb moving wildly against her swollen clit. 

Whiteness blinded her as she cried out silently, wave after wave of pleasure crashing over her as her orgasm flooded every nerve. Her consciousness receded ever so slightly, and for only a moment nothing else existed except for how warm she felt, and how her fingers could not get ideal purchase on the shoulder blades of the man over her, and how there was a faintly wet feeling between her legs. 

As the tides of pleasure began to slow, so too did Link’s movements before he pulled away entirely when she began to twitch and whimper with overstimulation. Her body went completely limp, a thin sheen of sweat covering every inch of skin. 

Above her, Link groaned, and she swam out of the enticing grip of unconsciousness to realize that the Champion was still hard. Deftly, her hands left his shoulders and batted away his own palm to once again grasp his shaft. With every pull he let out a strained noise, and after only a few strokes his body tensed violently, and he let out a guttural moan as he spilled over her hand. 

He barely avoided collapsing on top of her, paying just enough mind to shove himself to the side before his full weight landed on her exhausted body. Both tried to regain their breath, bodies limp where they lay. 

“We did not go all the way,” Zelda lamented after a few moments of rushed gasps. 

- _are too tired,_ was all the Princess managed to catch as she tilted her head and watched his hands sign with unfocused eyes. 

“Yes,” she agreed, “much too tired.”

Link shifted before he sat up, pulling out his ponytail to redo it as it had almost fallen out completely. On unsteady legs he stumbled to his feet, then began swiping clothes off the floor purposefully. He tugged on his undergarments, grabbing her brassiere and dress from off an armchair that they had gotten caught on and folded them neatly, placing them on the end table beside her. 

She watched with curious green eyes as he searched for his boxers which had somehow managed to get tossed into the far corner despite how carefully they’d been taken off, and he tugged them up his hips. His trousers followed suit, as well as his undershirt. 

She blinked away her exhaustion quickly, sitting up with haste. “You are leaving?” She exclaimed. 

He whipped around at her urgent tone. _It will damage your reputation if I stay, Princess._

“To hells with my reputation. I am already a failure in everyone else’s eyes, let them judge me for one more thing.”

 _I cannot let you do that to yourself._ He looked regretful as he moved his fingers and hands. I want to stay, but it is unwise. 

“At least stay for a little while,” she said, voice climbing in pitch in desperation. “You could leave before the sun comes up. No one would know you hadn’t returned.”

Link sighed, his face torn. Zelda could tell her guard wished to stay, but he was right that it was unwise for them to be together through the morning. But much to her relief, he began winding a path through the furniture in her chambers back to her bed. She scooted herself towards the center, and he followed suit by crawling up next to her. 

The princess faced the opposite wall, settling comfortably on her side while her knight found comfort behind her, a strong arm wrapping around to rest on her stomach. Their bodies meshed as if they were destined to be this close, which Zelda supposed was somewhat true. Exhaustion from their orgasms finally seemed to catch up, and the Princess embraced the tempting grasp of unconsciousness as Link brushed a strand of hair away from the back of her neck. There, he laid a kiss, allowing himself to also drift off.


	2. Nowhere in Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That one cliche cave scene that every fanfic is incomplete without.

Neither stirred until sunlight began to creep into her bedroom as the early hours of morning reached through the ceiling to floor windows. With it came a gentle warmth, and the light finally broke apart her heavy eyelids. 

Zelda stretched her legs out, only to find herself slightly restricted by the pair that had tangled with her own. The events of the previous night rushed back to her, and a blush spread across her cheeks before a wave of panic crashed through that momentary bliss. 

Behind her, the Champion slept soundly, complete serenity painting his features—a rare sight to see. The blissful expression he wore, however, was unfortunately short-lived. At the surge of panic through the Princess’s veins, she leapt out of the sheets, kicking him on the arm in the process. His eyes flew open, grabbing for the sword that was not on his back, and quickly sweeping wide eyes across the room with a dangerous glare.

Zelda threw a pillow at him, and Link threw up his shoulder to his face where it hit him with a _wumph_. “Sh!” She hissed at him, collecting her clothing at the bedend where her guard had neatly folded them the night before.

Adrenaline fading from his veins, Link glanced down at the pillow, and then at the very naked state of Zelda. His face burned for a moment before he respectfully turned around while she changed as quickly as she could into her complex dress. The Princess rolled his eyes at his bashfulness as if he hadn’t been between her legs the night before.

“We overslept,” she whispered as she pulled the bodice of the flowing gown up her now covered chest. “We need to get you out of here.”

He thrust a thumbs up out to the side where she could see, but Zelda could tell that her knight was nervous as he fidgeted and shifted on his feet. She fluffed her hair out of the way as she redid the lace straps that secured her gown, snarling at the length of it as it got in her way. 

“How much trouble will you be in with how late it is?” 

_What time is it?_ He signed out to the side with now gloved hands. Where had those come from?

Zelda glanced at the clock by her wardrobe on the other end of the room. She squinted, not being able to read its hands from such a distance, and when she couldn’t, she let out a frustrated huff as she crossed the distance to get a better look. 

Granted, it was much earlier than she had previously thought. With how soon the sun crested the horizon in the summer, it was often hard to tell exactly how much time one had lost with as busy a schedule they both had, but thankfully the clock only read 06:50. Training at the barracks began at 06:00, so her knight was almost an hour late already.

“Six fifty,” she reported, skipping across the floor of her chambers once again. At this point she had haphazardly tied her dress in place, so she tapped on his shoulder as she normally did to let Link know that she had finished whatever private business she had been attending to. He cautiously turned his head, visibly relaxing at her now clothed state.

“Come on,” she started, pulling on his sleeve as she began dancing towards the door, “we need to get you out of here.”

Link nodded dumbly, shuffling after her as his balance was thrown by her wild tugging. Her bare feet slapped against the floor of the chamber, but the Champion’s boots hit softly. Surely that was something he had learnt to do when trying to move through an area quietly, but she still found herself slightly jealous that he was that much more capable of something so simple.

As they approached the thick oak door, the sound of footsteps on the other side froze them in place. The Princess nearly threw Link backwards towards the bed, but he recovered from his momentary stumble by diving completely over it and ducked against the other side. Zelda barely had time to whip around before there was a great knocking against the wooden door, and it swung open.

“My lady, it is tim- oh! You are already awake, your highness,” cried the maiden. She was a stout woman with dark hair and fine lines that defined her age, dressed in the standard apron-style dress with a tunic underneath it. 

“I believe we have discussed that the act of knocking was entirely meaningless if the person inside did not welcome you in when you open the door,” Zelda chastised her, nervousness apparent in her hands that were clutched behind her back.

“My apologies, your highness. You are right, I should have asked to come in. I was just concerned as you had not yet left your chambers, and I feared you would be late for your shrine visit,” the woman said, lowering her head guiltily.

“I will not be late, do not worry. Thank you for your concern, but I will be just fine,” the Princess concluded, intending to dismiss the maiden.

“Of course, your highness. However, there was another matter I came to tell you about,” the maiden sead, raising her head ever so slightly.

“What is it?” 

“It seems your personal guard did not return to his quarters the other night. If he is not found within the hour, I recommend you take a few of the other guards with you to your shrine.”

Zelda felt adrenaline once again pick up in her veins, and she clenched her jaw. “I am sure he will turn up. Link has never disappointed me before, nor has he ever been late.”

“As you wish. Would you like any help dressing today, your highness?” She smiled warmly, a motherly undertone to her voice.

“That is alright, thank you. I will be down in the kitchen within the next ten minutes. I must wrap up a bit of research first,” Zelda returned the grin, wringing her hands behind her back as she listened to the thudding of her heart knowing that her guard was only a few meters from where they stood.

The maiden bowed her head respectfully, backing out of the Princess’s chambers and pulling the door shut behind her. Zelda released a long breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding, sinking to the floor as she let her heart calm.

Link, from across the room, peeked at eye out around the bedend, crawling towards her with amusement in his eyes. Breathily, Zelda let out her own series of squashed giggles, feeling much like she had when they were children sneaking around the castle.

“Let’s get you out of here,” she said, smiling toothily at her knight who shared her same expression and nodded.

Standing, the Princess risked a peek outside around her large door where two guards were posted on either side of it. One turned slightly, and she quickly shut the door before he could see past her at the knight that had supposedly gone missing.

She paced a few steps while Link brought himself to his feet. There was only one way in and out of her room -- a security measure her father had ensured was put into place when Zelda was born. Other than the door, there was a ceiling vent that led to the outside, but ultimately led to a vertical wall on the outside of the castle. 

Her hand was brought to her face, and she nervously chewed on her nails as she walked back and forth, looking for a way that the knight could take to get out. Why were there guards now outside of her room when there hadn’t been any last night? Perhaps those were the guards that the maiden had suggested she ask to take her to the shrine in Link’s stead.

A gentle touch snatched her out of her panicked train of thought, and she turned to look at Link who gestured towards the window. 

“You’ll fall to your death,” she huffed, but took a glance out the window anyway. “What if you left after I led the guards away?”

The moment that left her mouth, she knew that wouldn’t work. There was only one stairwell up to her chambers, and it was in a central hall that many castle workers frequented in their day to day chores. There was no way he wouldn’t be seen. Link was right - the only way out was through the window.

She clicked her tongue, then marched over to the windows. They were ceiling to floor length, but the one on the far end of the room was openable with a small balcony on the other side. She unlatched it with her Champion at her heels, and she peeked over the guardrail. Below there was a decorative ledge, but it wasn’t wide enough for Link to land on. It opened into a courtyard with a large tree in the middle. Perhaps he could try to jump into that? But there was no way no one would see him leap from a balcony only to land inevitably ungracefully into a large oak. And goddesses only know that he might take a tree branch with him. Not to mention that they were rather high up in general. 

But, as she weighed all the horrible scenarios in her head, another touch was placed on her shoulder, and she glanced his way.

_Change your clothes, your highness,_ he signed. _Those are not your prayer robes, and people will notice if you wore the same dress twice in a row._

Before Zelda could register that he was saying his goodbyes, he vaulted over the guard rail and straight down below. 

“Link!” She called weakly, remembering that they weren’t supposed to be in her chambers alone like they had been. She raced to the rail, bowing the top half of her body over the edge. Relief washed over her in generous waves when she realized she had taken that ledge, and gripped it with his fingers. He looked up and nodded at her, smiling his normal goofy smile before shuffling sideways. To their left, where he was headed, there was a small landing with another window to a study a few floors below where he gracefully placed himself and quietly snuck in through the window.

Heart attack now over, Zelda turned back to her bedroom feeling like a giddy child that got away with stealing an extra dessert. She quickly changed into her prayer robes, packing an extra pair of her normal apparel into her satchel along with her journal and charcoal pencil she always carried with her. 

She was in the dining hall in the time that she had promised the maiden, who stood in the corner of the room awaiting her arrival with a full breakfast on a platter in her hand. Already late, the Princess did not waste time eating. It was done in an efficient yet dignified manner, and she was finished fifteen minutes later. As she was preparing to leave the hall, the chef stopped her and offered her a few sandwiches, intending for her to take them with her. Zelda gratefully accepted, stashing them into her satchel safely next to her change of clothing where they wouldn’t be crushed. With a prolonged goodbye with the chef who did not seem to want to let her go off and do her duties, she finally managed to slip away when he was distracted by a kitchenboy calling him back in. 

With haste in her step, the Princess made her way through the castle halls towards the main entrance where she was stopped by three guards. 

“As Sir Link has not yet been found, Princess, we will be escorting you today to the shrine,” one of them said with a thick voice. 

Just before Zelda could make up an excuse as to why she would not need them, and how she knew that, in fact, her knight was _not_ missing, and that she knew _exactly_ where he was, the Champion in question was spotted walking up towards the main gate with Galen following behind him, completely tacked up.

“It seems my guard has turned up,” she breathed, turning towards the knights who all took in the sight of the missing guardsman. 

“So it seems,” the same one gritted out, motioning for the other two to follow him back to wherever their previous posts were before.

The Princess stuck her tongue out at them after checking to see if anyone else would notice, then began her waltz towards Link, who had stopped just before a fountain. 

“Goodmorning,” Zelda greeted him, her face pinking at her cheeks. 

Link bowed respectfully, then motioned at Galen, presumably for her to get onto.

“Where is Storm?” She asked him as she traveled to the stallion’s side, stroking the horse’s neck and shoulders as she went.

Link offered her a hand, and she took it gratefully as he all but threw her on top of the large horse. He made sure she was looking before signing, _He threw a shoe, unfortunately._

The Princess pursed her lips in disappointment. Despite having some issues with the beast before, she had begun to like that horse. It looked much like the one she had before Calamity Ganon, only it was a mare, and much more manageable than the stallion she currently rode. However, small successes lately had been found, and the two were beginning to understand one another.

It struck her then, when Link did not move to mount himself, what his intentions were for getting to the shrine. “You intend to walk the full way?” She asked him, incredulous.

_It is not that far,_ he reasoned, throwing the reins over the stallion’s ears for her to hold onto. She grabbed both the reins and a fistfull of mane as Link took hold of the lower half of the rein near the bit and turned back to the way he had entered.

“You’ll tire, and we’ll get there twice as slowly.” She didn’t want him to have to walk all the way to the shrine, even if it was only a few miles.

_You worry too much, your highness,_ he signed, grinning back at her. 

She shook her head as they made their exit, crowds clearing and making way for the Princess and the hero of Hyrule as they slowly made their way out of the citadel. She supposed any prayer at any time of day was better than no prayer at all, because they surely would not make it in time now for her typical hours.

As they plodded along, listening to the rhythmic sound of Galen’s heavy hooves hitting the cobbled pathway leading away from the kingdom, they chatted amongst each other. Zelda talked about her most recent research while Link tried to keep up as best as he could. When the Princess requested the Sheikah Slate, he warned her to be careful with its warping capabilities as she began switching through its various functions. Eventually, having fiddled with it for about five minutes, she opened its camera function and swung it around at almost everything she could. Several minutes later, there were about a hundred new images in its files. About twenty of them were of some deer they had passed, ten of Link’s strong back to her as she had prattled on about something or other, and perhaps five of the morning sun kissing the still waters of a small pond in the distance. The rest were miscellaneous things, most being mistakes where her finger had twitched on the button, taking a picture she hadn’t meant to take.

Eventually the castle’s tall walls were out of sight, and they rounded a corner at a grassy field.

“-so I tried using chuchu jelly, but that didn’t work either. It was beyond frustrating, really, trying to figure out what type of substance I would need for such an elixir, but then I tried the fire chuchu jelly, and thankfully that actually worked! It was incredible, you should have- Link?” She paused her rant when she had realized that they had suddenly come to a stop. They had not yet arrived at the shrine as it was still a few miles away, so she glanced confusedly at her guard who turned and made his way to Galen’s side. 

Immediately, his intentions were clear, and she scooted as far forward in the saddle as she could as he slung himself up behind her.

She jabbed him in the arm, and he flinched backwards at the unprompted attack. “As I suspected - you did get tired of walking.” Zelda’s grin was snide enough that she almost believed she deserved the retaliation she received as he did the same thing she had done to him.

_Not tired, just want to be close to you,_ he smiled gently, signing quickly before picking up Galen’s reins and squeezing the horse forward with his calves. Startled by the sudden bumpy gait of the horse’s trot, she grabbed onto his chest to steady herself. Link let go with his left hand to wrap around her waist, securing the Princess against his chest, and Zelda relaxed a little.

It was silent for ten minutes, both simply trying to get rid of the blush that stained their cheeks as they made their way with greater pace towards their goal. Eventually the silence broke, and they picked up the one sided conversation they had been discussing before. It was better this way that Zelda could simply talk at him especially now that both the Champion’s hands were occupied and could not respond. 

An hour later, the shrine was now in sight, and Link slowed his mount down by gently pulling back on the reins. The thundering sound of Galen’s hooves quieted as their pace decreased, and soon they were upon the small path that led to the shrine. Link jumped down first, offering a hand to his Princess as she gratefully slipped down herself, steadying herself in his arms. Galen was secured to a nearby tree with enough slack in his reins that might let him graze in the lush grasses nearby, and the two began their venture up the shrine’s path. 

This was not one of the larger three shrines, but it was simple in that it had a statue of the goddess Hylia and a small basin of water like the one on Mount Lanayru, but not big or deep enough to wade in. It was on a hillside, nestled between a few trees that granted it just enough privacy for it to be a holy place, but airy enough that one could look out at the distant mountain range if they squinted through the shrubline. 

Link, as always, respectfully waited at the start of the shrine and turned his back, Master Sword drawn with its tip facing the earth as he rested his hands on its hilt. The Princess gently laid her satchel down to the side, and began her prayer.

Idly, Link tried not to listen to what she was saying. It wasn’t polite to eavesdrop, and he most certainly did not want to interrupt his Princess in anything this important. Though, how important was it really now? Obviously her devotion to the goddesses was extremely important in that her faith would always be something he admired about her, but with Calamity Ganon defeated for now, he often wondered why Zelda continued to pray. She had abandoned her power after Ganon had been defeated and she had reclaimed her throne, claiming that she did not need it. And yet, here she stood at a shrine at least twice a week to pray. He supposed that she did not necessarily need a reason to practice her faith, with or without powers, and he found solace in knowing that that at least had not changed about her.

They stayed for quite awhile, Link standing at his post and sweeping the path for any suspicious movement that he was never sure wouldn’t come. He didn’t miss the rain clouds that began gathering in the distance, a great dark cumulonimbus (or whatever it was that the princess had called it when she had researched the weather and recounted her findings to him) that loomed like a great shadow in the sky. There was no apparent danger other than getting a little wet, but Link still found himself clutching the hilt of the Master Sword as the swirling edges resembled how Calamity Ganon had circled Hyrule Castle before he had been defeated. 

“Link?” A touch on his arm sent him reeling backwards, only to find the Princess looking at him with a rather shocked look. “I..” she began, trailing off as he relaxed and she let the tension drain from her shoulders that had gathered from his sudden outburst. “I am finished,” she concluded.

_Sorry, your highness, I was paying too little attention. It will not happen again,_ he signed stiffly, giving a curt bow. 

Zelda smiled, tentatively placing a hand on his bicep. When he didn’t recoil this time, she released a breath with her relief, then let it slide down his arm as she walked back down the path of the shrine. Link’s arm found itself tingling with the resounding feeling of her touch, even if it had been through a few layers of clothing. Deftly, he swiped his satchel onto his arm before she could leave it behind, and jogged down the path to meet her halfway down. He offered it to her, and she gasped, taking it from him and thanking him.

He was about to accept her thanks when a fat raindrop landed straight on his nose. He glanced up, realizing it had gotten slightly darker in the time that they were at the shrine. The rain cloud that had been in the distance what seemed like a few minutes ago had apparently traveled over them in the time that he had been standing there. He wiped it off as she giggled before another landed squarely on her head.

They shuffled slightly quicker, and as soon as they reached Galen Link reached into his saddlebag and whipped out the dark cloak that the Princess did not know he kept in there. He threw it over her shoulders which had become damp with the droplets that were now turning into a shower. 

_We should find cover,_ Link signed, leading her towards the horse’s side and all but throwing her up. He climbed quickly afterwards, without giving her much time to respond. She clutched her leather satchel tightly to her chest as the Champion once again wrapped his arm around her as he kicked the horse into a lengthened canter. The uneven ground made it too dangerous to gallop, so Zelda used her other hand to pull the hood completely over her head as the rain began to come down harder. 

“ _Yah_!” Link said, and the sound of his voice shocked her as she hadn’t been expecting it. Galen traveled just a little faster, snorting with every stride of his gait. 

What Zelda hadn’t realized was that they were most definitely not traveling back to the castle, and for good reason because as she was about to ask her guard where he was taking them to, a crack of thunder sounded in the distance. She remembered vaguely joking in a bout of courage a few months ago when they had been caught in a storm the same way they were now, that he was so attractive that even the lightning wanted him, but after he recounted the tale where he had actually been struck, she never joked about it again. She also didn’t miss how Link flinched every time thunder rolled, undoubtedly remembering that.

She pressed herself into his chest, reveling in the warmth that she found as a chill began to sweep through her. Her eyes shut tightly, and she tried to focus on the quick pace of the animal beneath her, and how Link’s arm held her tightly against him. She kept them shut for a long while, and only stopped to open them as Link began to slow Galen up.

The storm had begun coming down in full force now, and the Princess truly could not have imagined that a storm of this calibre would be coming in anytime soon as it had been clear skies and a gentle breeze when they had left that morning. 

The horse skidded to a stop, and Zelda took in her surroundings. They were somewhere in the Hyrule Plateau, a small cave in front of them that looked like it had been used by travelers before as there was a hitching post and a collapsed campfire. The Princess held onto the horn of the saddle as Link led his mount into the cave with a bit of protest on the horse’s part, clearly not enjoying the entrapped feeling that it brought with it. He was hitched with only a little difficulty before Link helped Zelda down, catching her in his arms when her legs gave slightly at the impact of hitting the hard stone floor. She pulled the cloak around her, searching for warmth from the wet cloth. 

Link, eyeing her growing shiver, turned to take in the cave for himself. He privately thanked the goddesses that whoever was last here had the good sense to leave dry kindling and logs on the other side, and he jogged over to stoke the collapsed fire. Fishing the flint from his satchel, he struck it against a small rock nearby, managing to spark the kindling as he stacked it up in the middle of the circle of stones. 

Zelda made her way over, still holding onto the soaked cloak around her as Link bent low to blow against the small embers that now gathered at the base. He glanced over to her, then grabbed the cloak.

“Hey!” She cried, protesting how he had just robbed her of a layer. He grabbed three long sticks from the pile in the corner, then began tying the three together with twine he had pulled from his satchel. When he propped it up, it stood on its own, albeit unsteadily, and he carefully maneuvered it closer to the fire where he then draped the cloak over it. 

Zelda pursed her lips, impressed that he had managed to whip that up so quickly, This turned to embarrassment, however, as he began unbuckling his satchel and removing the Champion’s Tunic as well as his undershirt from his person, balancing those on the makeshift stand as well. She hadn’t noticed it before, but he too was shivering. Her teeth may have been chattering noisily, bringing attention to it, but his reaction was much more subtle, and could only be seen if you really stared at him. And, really, why wouldn’t she be staring right now when her secret partner who had been courting her for months had just removed his shirt? Especially after the events of the night before? 

A fiery blush began keeping her warm as she looked away bashfully, and Link crouched to dig through his removed satchel for the damn near third time. He removed a small phial of orange-ish liquid, and held it out to her. When she glanced back only to see that outstretched to her, she immediately recognized it for what it was: his homemade spicy elixir.

He set the bottle in front of her, lifting his hands to sign, _It will warm you up._

“Thank you,” she said quietly, taking, uncorking, and sipping from it. As soon as it hit her tongue, a rush of warmth flooded through her, and she found herself downing the rest of it in a rather undignified manner. She licked the small amount that had caught on the top of her lip with her tongue, turning towards Link to extend more gratitude when she realized that he did not have one himself. 

With the horror of realizing that that must have been his only spicy elixir, she gasped unbelievably at him, which made the Champion turn and shrink back in alarm. 

“You didn’t have a second?” She demanded. 

Link paused, fearing the wrath of the princess in front of him, then shook his head. 

“Goddesses, you must be freezing!” She cried, exasperation clear in her tone. “We could have, I do not know, shared that or something?”

When he replied with nothing but a sheepish grin, she continued her outburst. “How could you have let me drink that whole thing?”

He lifted his hands cautiously, as if she may interpret the action differently than what they were obviously there to do. _You were cold, Princess._

“So are you!” She blurted, worry furrowing her eyebrows. 

He gently extended his hand, pausing when it got close to her face as if she might slap it away. Obviously she didn’t, and all but leaned into his touch like a cat when he cupped her cheek and began smoothing out the wrinkling at her brow. 

He touched his thumb to his chest with his open left hand. _I’m fine._ Link smiled warmly, handsome features accentuated by the swath of soft orange light as the fire began to crackle with purpose. 

It was hard to stay mad at him when he made such expressions, and she instead pouted her lower lip. “No, you are not,” she insisted. 

Before he had a chance to argue, she left the warm embrace of his palm and crawled closer to him, invading his space. He leaned away to make room, and she shuffled him around where they sat much like they had when they were riding. Zelda sat snuggly between his legs, and her back pressed against his bare chest. 

Link swallowed thickly, and the only reason Zelda could tell was because she could feel its theatrical movement. His arms tentatively wrapped around her, and he rested his chin on her shoulder. Stubble that he must have forgotten to shave that morning had begun to grow back, and as the rain and thunder boomed outside of their little hideaway, all the Princess could think about was the front scratchy sensation when she leaned against his touch and felt the young facial hair against her bare throat. 

“Oh!” She started after a moment, startling him. “The chef made us sandwiches this morning. Would you like one?”

At the sight of his suddenly very alert expression and the watering of his mouth, Zelda laughed as she used her boot to reach across to where she had been sitting before and hooked the toe around the leather bag’s strap. She pulled it towards them and unbound the small clasp, fishing out the unharmed sandwiches and her change of clothes that she had brought with her. It was surprising that the bag’s contents had been relatively untouched, but she supposed that was the power of real leather. 

The chef had packed three sandwiches, and it was no mystery why. The Princess handed Link two, and he graciously plucked them out of her hands as he greedily began unwrapping them from the parchment protection. 

Zelda followed suit, taking a dainty bite out of hers and marveling at its taste. It was turkey, cheese, lettuce, and a special sauce that the chef refused to give out. What made the sauce so special was that it was like a blast of flavor that you’d never expect to go well with protein as it was a sweeter substance, but it made everything else that you ate with it absolutely melt in your mouth, and Zelda moaned at its taste. 

She glanced back at Link who had already wolfed down half of his first sandwich, and the Princess was horrified to see that he was feeding his “crust first” habit. It reminded her much of a rabbit, actually, the way he would bite around a sandwich or even a whole roll of bread, claiming that there was extra flavor that she simply lacked the culinary knowledge to be able to sense. He’d earned a whack on the head for that, even though he was probably right. 

“He used his sauce,” Zelda said, holding a hand up in front of her mouth as if it excused her from speaking with her mouth full. 

_I can do better,_ Link signed back after swallowing what was left of the first sandwich and holding the second locked in his jaw. 

They spent the next few moments in comfortable silence as they finished their food. Zelda enjoyed the warmth radiating from the Champion’s bare chest, appreciating the hand he rested on her hip when eating only required one hand. 

Link had finished both by the time the Princess had only eaten half of hers, and he startled her when he pressed his nose into her neck and inhaled contentedly. 

Heat crept up her face, and without anything else to do but make the situation more awkward, she blurted, “So the rain does not seem to be letting up anytime soon.”

He shook his head, but took the outburst as discomfort, and put some space between them. Or at least as much as he could with her between his legs. 

As Zelda silently prayed for Hylia to simply strike her down now and save her the embarrassment of reviving whatever atmosphere she had just so unceremoniously shattered, Link shuffled backwards and brought himself to his feet. 

_I am going to grab some furs,_ he signed quickly, slightly deflating the growing ball of anxiety that had planted itself in her throat. 

The Princess focused on finishing whatever was left of her sandwich, savoring the last few bites of that magical sauce as Link retrieves a few bedrolls off of Galen’s saddle. He strode back over purposefully, then had her stand and move slightly while he laid the furs out close enough to the fire to feel its heat without danger of catching light themselves. 

Zelda settled back down, snatching the parchment that the sandwiches had been encased in and tossing them onto the little fire that had just caught onto its first log on the pile. 

Link stood for a moment, looking like a lost puppy for a moment before he seemed to steel himself for something. With confusion in her eyes, she watched him approach up to her back, and she blushed as he carefully returned to the position they had been in before. With a tad more confidence, he looped his arms around her middle and once again rested his chin on her shoulder, and they fell back into a comfortable silence. 

A few hours passed and the rain continued its furious downpour; lightning struck nearby once and awhile, and they both found themselves restlessly holding each other even tighter. Galen became more and more nervous as time passed. Being the closest one to the mouth of the cave, he was rightfully displeased, but he was also too stubborn to move any further inwards, even at the temptation of a carrot Link happened to dig out of his saddlebag. 

As time passed, exhaustion began to creep up Zelda’s bones. Most likely because they hadn’t done much more than sit for the past long while, but watching Link swing his sword when his boredom bested him an hour ago had made her plenty tired. It was hard to tell the time since the storm cast a dark shadow across the plateau, but she knew it couldn’t possibly be too far into the evening. Maybe 16:00 at the earliest, 18:00 at the latest. 

She did, however, appreciate the view that she had currently. The chill that the storm brought with them had invaded both of their bodies, and while Zelda prefered to stay near the fire to keep warm after Link’s radiator of a body had detached itself from her, Link had found warmth in training. 

Zelda was not a fighter. She knew basic hand-to-hand combat, but watching Link gracefully swipe the sword through the air was something else entirely. Hand combat always looked somewhat messy. Choppy and without direction, all brunt force and little momentum. At least in the kind the trainees of the barracks trained in. 

But watching Link as he swept the Master Sword to the side, kicked his right leg up, and twisted himself in the air, only to stick the landing with a great swing of the blade was akin to watching the Gerudo dance. Contrary to the clunkier-looking hand combat, there seemed to only be momentum with the sword. It moved as if it were an extension of his own body, and she could tell Link was intimately familiar with just how long it was. She supposed he should be that knowledgeable with it, seeing as he had sunk it into the flesh of many Bokoblin he had met. 

It didn’t hurt either that the man before her was shirtless, and every chord of muscle that flexed with his movements could be seen. The shadows of his abs were most prominent when he was sideways to the fire, and they would move powerfully with every breath he took as he caught his breath. But her favorite had to be his arms. Zelda had held the Master Sword just briefly before, and she knew that such a weapon was not at all light. The muscle it took to properly swing such a thing was demonstrated perfectly by none other than the Hero of Hyrule, who wielded it as if it weighed no more than a feather. 

Link must have been aware of her staring by now, as she had been doing it since he had picked that sword up from the cave floor an hour ago. Goddesses, it would genuinely surprise her if he didn’t notice eyes on him with any intention. His instincts and intuition were like that of a wolf’s, knowing that something was looking at him without any explanation as to why. It had saved them on many occasions, and the Princess figures that it was as much a gift as it was a strange quality of his. 

Her show was interrupted by a great slap of lightning, and Galen’s shrill whinny in response. Her head whipped towards the mouth of the cave, as if something were there. Link had turned as well, unrest evident on his features. 

Zelda yawned despite herself, covering her mouth quickly. When she swiveled back, she was met with signing hands. 

_You are tired,_ he observed, setting the Master Sword down next to him as he shook the bangs that clung to his forehead away and shuffled closer to the fire. 

“I doubt it is even evening yet,” she replied, making room for him by the warm flames. 

_The rain will not likely stop until morning anyway. We should stay the night._ His eyes flickered towards her clothes. _You may be warmer in something else, Princess._

Oh! She had forgotten she had a change of clothes in her satchel. “You are right,” she mused, groping through her satchel and pulling out her everyday clothing. On unsteady feet from sitting too long, Zelda stood. 

Red dusted the tips Link’s ears, and he quickly turned around, the same way he had that morning. She laughed breathily at how polite he was being, then wondered if that had been another rule in his little book. But they’d also broken just about a dozen others the night before, so it wasn’t like he should have been too hung up on that tome anymore. 

The sound of her dress falling to the floor caused Link to flinch, and the Princess found amusement in that. “You have seen me now, why do you insist on being cordial?” Zelda asked, picking at the first garment of her spare clothes. 

It seemed like the Champion was going to say something when he lifted his hands, but they ultimately settled back in his lap as she pulled her shirt down. 

“You know,” she began, her voice deliberately light and airy, “I would not blame you if you sneaked a peak.”

The boy all but froze, rigid where he sat up straighter than a pole. But it seemed in this regard his duty came first, and he did not give into the temptation she laid out as bait on a shiny platter. With an indignant huff, frustrated that he just wouldn’t _relax,_ she finished pulling the rest of her clothes on. 

If she had known what her comment had made his ears ring and his blood surge, if she could hear his inner turmoil, perhaps she wouldn’t have felt so disappointed. Because Link’s mind reeled at her words, taking several seconds to really seep through the barely semipermeable barrier of his thick skull. Obviously he wanted to, but was that really the best course of action? The events of the night before shouldn’t be repeated — they could harm the Princess and sully her name. The telltale touch on her shoulder let him know that she was finished, and she sprawled herself out, now fully dressed, across one of the furs he had spread near the fire. She laid straight on her back, her hands folded on her chest, but her eyes were open. Link scooted closer, then laid out in the same fashion in the opposite direction, leaving their heads next to each other.

Zelda’s blonde hair haloed her face, and Link tugged at his ponytail when it prodded the back of his head as he laid down. He shook it out once more, then finally settled, and they both went quiet. 

They allowed the weight of their relationship to simply sink in. Whatever courtship that was happening was strictly forbidden. It would be a scandal if anyone found out that the Princess was intimately involved with her personal guard. The gossip mongers of Castle Town would eat it up, and who knows how that could potentially be used against her. Not to mention the Hero who would more than likely have to leave the castle should they be caught. But they both knew that these feelings that they had were real and valuable, and emotion swelled in Zelda’s chest.

“I love you,” she said quietly, unable to catch it as it slipped from her mouth. But really, it was the truth, and she breathed a sigh as she turned her head to face him. He was already looking back at her with wide eyes and pink cheeks, and instead of the embarrassment or anxiety that usually followed a confession, all she could feel was the exact emotion she had just confessed. 

It was so true that it hurt, and it ached when she thought about the fact that they couldn’t come out in the open about their feelings without risking credibility. It was hard enough bringing together the kingdom after Calamity Ganon was defeated when all the people were under the impression that she had died, or should have died, a hundred years ago. The last thing they needed was to think that they were being led by a lovestruck teenager.

But that was exactly what she was, albeit she was now twenty and Link a year younger.

Link’s hands lifted, and she sucked in a gasp when he signed, _I love you too._

Without her consent, a tear dripped down her face, and the guard sat up, alarmed. He cupped her face gently, face twisting in horror, no doubt thinking he had just ruined the moment.

“Sorry, sorry.” She began to dismissively wave her right hand as a second drop slid down her cheek.

His thumb swiped across its path, wiping it away with a tenderness in his blue eyes that Zelda couldn’t look at without feeling worse. She brokenly choked, everything simply becoming too much as her emotions poured over the brim.

“What can we do?” Her voice was fractured as it came out. “I wish we had never returned to the castle. I wish we had gone somewhere else,” she sobbed, lifting the hand she had been waving earlier to shield her mouth. 

Link pulled her to her knees and into an embrace, clutching her tightly as her body fitted against his. The Princess’s head was buried in his bare shoulder, sobs wracking through her body as she clenched fingers on his back.

“What are we going to do?” Zelda repeated hopelessly through hiccups.

Link simply held her tighter to him.


	3. In the Darkest of Corners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of the last chapter.

Cradled in the Champion’s arms, Zelda cried and cried as the storm continued its furious downpour outside of the small cave. Link dared not move, holding her as closely and as tightly as he could without crushing her. He wished he could express himself more than he could, and he silently cursed himself that he could not bring himself to properly use his voice. He wanted to console the weeping girl in his grasp; he wanted to shush her and stroke her hair softly as he whispered that everything was going to be alright, that she wasn’t alone, that she didn’t have to struggle the way that she was struggling. 

And for the first time in over a decade, Link opened his mouth, took in a breath, but his body betrayed him, and no voice left him. He clamped his jaw shut, frustrated with himself and the rest of the world. He wished he could convey how he felt about her - that he did not just love this girl, but more than that. That he always wanted to protect her, to be the one she came to when she was down, to be there for her whenever she needed it. Because Link felt like he was more than just his charge’s guard - he was her friend. He cared for her more than she could possibly ever know. It was beyond what language and coherent thought could muster, so all there was left to do to try and make her understand was to continue holding her as her small body shook with the force of her sobs.

His hand reached up and began to pet the back of her head, raking his fingers softly through golden locks, but it only made her cry harder if that were possible.

A rather long time passed while they clung to each other as if one might drift away if they let go, but after a while her tears seemed to dry up, and all she could do was hiccup helplessly into his shoulder. Her shoulders ceased their shaking, not for lack of emotion left to give, but for exhaustion as it curled around her. Very slowly, she settled into his arms, and her breathing evened out.

She had fallen asleep, Link concluded as he breathed in the calming scent of her hair. 

Galen had calmed hours ago, despite the lightning that still struck outside every once and awhile, but still stood alertly with his ears pointed forwards at the black haze of the plateau outside. The horse would sometimes glance over at the two, or rotate an ear in their direction before turning right back to the rain outside. Link felt a little bad that he had neglected to remove the animal’s tack before he had committed to holding the Princess like a lifeline, but he would be damned if he let her go now. 

With a deep sigh, he carefully repositioned them so that he could hold her as they laid on their sides on top of the furs. The fire had begun to die out, and Link was thankfully close enough to it to poke the embers in the charcoal below the logs, and it sputtered back to its young blaze as it caught some of the untouched kindling.

The Champion glanced at Zelda’s face, now far enough for him to properly see, and he smiled when he saw that a stray hair had fallen into her face. He gently brushed it back behind her ear, and she stirred slightly, furrowing her eyebrows delicately and squirming away from the ticklish sensation He chuckled, then circled his arm back around her protectively and allowed his eyelids to fall with the weight of fatigue.

With the lull of the crackling fire and the rhythmic sound of Zelda’s breathing, Link shed one of his own tears before succumbing to sleep.

\---

Zelda’s feet hit the wet grass, mud splashing up at her with every footfall as they ran towards an unseen goal. Her thighs and calves burned from running so fast for so long, but the adrenaline that pumped through her veins and the hand that continued to tug her along kept her moving. She knew that she should be thinking about getting away, about escaping to live another day, but all that crossed her mind was her failure. The Pool of Wisdom was her last chance, and she had completely blown it. Calamity Ganon had returned, the castle had been seized, and Guardians stained with his Malice that once shown blue and now shown red scuttled after them on their many tentacle-like legs. 

Link heaved, pain lacing up and down his body with every stride he took. The Master Sword swung in his grasp, but his grip was loose, and it would almost fall out of his grasp every few steps. He had taken a great slash to his chest upon facing Ganon, and he could feel the blood that had been leaking sink into his shirt and drift down to his hips.

All he knew was that something had gone terribly wrong. The Divine Beasts had not completed their duty and as far as he knew the others had been killed. All he wanted to do now was to get the Princess out of there. In all his duties, this was his most prominent. They had failed to defeat and seal Calamity Ganon, so the only thing left to do was his only other responsibility: protect the Princess.

But even that he was already failing as well. The gash in his chest was deep, and it wept freely, but he had no hand to keep it from spilling any more blood than it already had. They were occupied dragging the Princess by her wrist, and the other clutched Master Sword with a waning strength. He felt his vision blur and he felt dizzy, every breath, every step a new agony. With every running step he took, he promised himself to take just one more, that they were that much closer to getting the Princess somewhere safe and he could rest, but the Guardians pursuing them were just as fast, and seemed to have no issue keeping up. Behind him Link could hear their metal talons on their feet hitting the ground with a heavy clank.

Desperation crawled through his veins, but he could feel his body beginning to give out, but just ahead were some ruins, and he willed his body to last just a little longer. When they reached the scattered rubble, he skidded to a stop, almost causing the Princess to crash into him. The Guardians skittered towards them, stopping at the crest of the hill to look around until their unsettlingly swirling blue eye pivoted to find them, and it paused, focusing, before rushing in.

Link released her hand, and with a great roar, he charged at the mechanical giant. It reached a tentacle out at him, swiping at him, but it was promptly cut off by the Master Sword as it was swung in an upwards motion. A second and third Guardian made their way over towards Link as he flung himself around the first’s head and landed the sword into its eye. Both the other two Guardians blared to life, and their heat lasers shot at him. Link leapt off the first Guardian just as the laser hit it, and the machine crumbled to the ground. The rain began to let up, and patches of dry grass began to catch fire from the streamlines of heat.

The Champion rolled and latched onto the bottom of the second Guardian, leveraging himself onto its head as one of its arms reached menacingly out to him. The third Guardian’s laser hit the second squarely, and it shuddered with a whine of its engine as it heavily fell. A talon swiped out at him, catching him on the cheek and throwing off his balance when he tried to move away, throwing him sprawling to the ground. Link tried to get up, but was stopped abruptly by a searing sensation on the back of his thigh. The machine had been quick to react, and Zelda screamed in the background as it began melting the back of her guard’s leg.

Link let out a heartbreaking howl, grabbing his shield and tossing it towards the Guardian’s eye. It didn’t hit its mark, but it gave enough of a chance for the Champion to reach for his sword that had fallen a few feet away and to vault it into the mark he missed before like a spear. The machine collapsed forwards, and Link managed to scoot out of its way just before it crushed him. He grabbed the sword from its eye, then scrambled to his feet. Agony raked through his right leg, and he stumbled backwards towards the Princess.

Zelda was fully in tears now, sobbing uncontrollably while he checked her arms and legs for any sign of new injury. Distraught, she didn’t know whether to be touched or angry with him for neglecting his own wounds, so instead she just cried with an untamable, unnamable emotion.

But the moment did not last as more Guardians approached up the hill. Link turned to look at them. Thankfully they had not spotted them just yet, but as Link began to stand, his right leg gave out and he dropped to one knee, using the Master Sword in his right hand to try to balance. Just as he did so, a Guardian turned, focusing on them before beginning to scuttle forward.

Fire had begun to catch most of the dry grass, and ashes flew through the air. The smell of blood and oil was prominent, and Link clutched at his chest wound which burned under his touch.

“Link,” the Princess pleaded, bent over to comfort him with hands on his shoulders, “save yourself. Go!”

When the Champion grit his teeth and did not move, frustration took over her, but she tried to keep her tone gentle.

“I’ll be fine,” she began again, her voice fading because she knew it was a lie. “Don’t worry about me.”

Link looked back up at the Guardian, now twice as close as it had been before, and for as hard as he tried to feel motivated to save his charge, exhaustion was simply too hard to ignore. His body ached, and his vision was darkening at the edges, but he fought it as he blinked it furiously away.

“Run!” He heard Zelda cry, and he dropped his head, heaving. It was impossible to leave her. He wouldn’t. He flung himself to his feet, ignoring the stab of pain where he had been burnt, and took a few stumbles backwards. 

Suddenly the Guardian was upon them, and Link found terror as he stared directly into its eye. Its red warning light shone out first, straight at his head, and for the briefest of moments he felt relief. His eyes closed, and he felt peaceful.

But then, he was abruptly shoved out of the way, and Zelda stood out in front of him. She was covered in mud, tears, and blood that he could only hope was his own. Before he could scream and grab her behind him again, she thrust out her arm towards the red beam, and a blinding light blasted out of her palm. A gust of wind swept past them, catching her hair and stealing his breath away. The light dimmed for a moment before it pulsed, and Link clenched his eyes shut as its power gushed around them. A second passed before he reopened his eyes, and the Guardian in front of them shuddered before its glow diminished, and Malice left its mechanical form. In quick succession, the rest of them fell heavily to the ground, and Link could feel the tremors of the ground beneath him as they fell.

“Was…” Zelda began, disbelief flooding her system. She retracted her hand to look down at it, in awe of herself. “Was that… the power?”

A rush of pride swelled through her, and elation took over her form. Perhaps this was not a hopeless situation after all! Perhaps they were not too late, and could still save Hyrule from Calamity Ganon’s Malice! She sucked in a breath to yell for joy - to do something so that the dopamine that rushed through her could be channeled, but it died and shriveled the moment she heard a thump on the ground behind her.

She whipped around only to find Link on his side, clutching his chest and curling inwards on himself.

“No,” she whispered, dread replacing her momentary lapse of joy. “No!” She cried, this time louder, and she hurried over to his side. “Link! Get up!” 

The Champion heard her pleas, as if realizing that he was now on the ground. He wanted to move - tried to move, but his muscles simply did not allow him. The princess began to cry again, cradling him in her arms and trying her best to prop up his upper body. Link let out a few coughs, spitting blood up with it, before he crumpled back into her arms.

He could hear her voice, but it was distorted. The only things he caught were “You’re going… just.. Ine.” Link tried to look up into her eyes, but no matter how hard he tried he could not bring his eyes to focus. He took in a wheezing breath, feeling blood rise in his throat again. The cough was stomped down again, and he tried to lift his hands enough to sign something, but unconsciousness was beginning to pull harder and harder on him. Fighting became more and more difficult, and he looked up at the greens and blues of his Princess’s eyes and found peace. He only managed to form part of the sign for I before his eyes rolled backwards and his eyelids closed.

Zelda’s mouth dropped, grief wracking through her as her guard fell limply in her arms. New tears gathered at the back of her eyes, and she pressed her face against his chest, right above the awful gash the Champion had been dealt. The soft patter of rain began to pick up again, and as it blew out some of the grass fires and released smoke into the air, the girl could only bring herself to choke on her own sobs instead of the suffocating smell of rain and smog around her. His grip finally loosened on the Master Sword, and it gently hit the wet grass beside him as his fingers unwrapped themselves.

As another cry raked through her, the Princess woke with a start. She scrambled away from the body still holding her, and backwards across the furs, panting as her body reacted to the memory she had just dreamt. Link, startled by the sudden awakening, grabbed his sword next to him as he leapt to his feet, alarm fully rung and preparing himself for whatever danger there surely was. All the sleep had melted away from his face in an instant, and he swept his eyes across the cave to the Princess deep in her panicked state. 

The Master Sword fell from his grasp, and he ran to grab onto her, and recognition washed over her. Still, tears fell, and she melted into his embrace once again.

“You… You…” _Died._ Zelda tried to form a sentence, but it kept getting stuck in her throat, unable to fish it out. She did not sob wildly like she had before, simply allowing the adrenaline that pumped through her to take a moment and calm down. She clutched at his arms that trapped her, feeling the warmth and the pulse beneath his skin to reassure herself that he was still alive.

After her breathing had settled, he pulled away, checking her over like he had before he had fallen to one knee before that Guardian. Satisfied that he had found no wounds, The Princess allowed herself a fractured chuckle that was marred by the hiccups of her earlier tears. “I’m fine, Link.”

The Champion let out a breath of relief, releasing her and falling back onto his butt and resting his elbows on his knees. 

After a beat, he lifted his hands. _What was it about?_

She recalled the nightmare, bit her lip, and quietly confessed. “The same as always. You…” again, she couldn’t pull the words out, “with Calamity Ganon. And the Guardians.”

Link chewed on his lip for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing. Then, he reached for her wrist, the same one he had led her by when they were fleeing before. Zelda hesitantly allowed him to guide her towards his chest, right over the top of his large scar and over his heart. He pushed her palm open with rough fingers, then laid it over his left pectoral, and simply allowed her to feel how it beat against his chest.

_I am alive,_ he signed, releasing her hand. _I am okay._

If Zelda had any tears left to shed, perhaps she would have, but she had drained her reserves however many hours ago she had fallen asleep, and the few she had produced in that time over the nightmare. So because there was no other way to express how she felt, she jumped forward and kissed him. Her hands wrapped around his neck, grabbing at the hair at the base of his neck. At first the boy was shocked, surprised by her boldness, but quickly responded with his own fierceness.

They allowed themselves to get lost in the feeling of their lips pressed against each other, wrapped up in the other’s arms as if it were the safest place in the world - the place they belonged. The other’s body warmth sorted out the complicated emotions that battled within them so the two lovers wouldn’t have to.

It was an innocent kiss - chaste, but it lasted much longer than it should have, and they both pulled back only when their lungs burned for air. But instead of pulling away, Link stayed put, and so too did the Princess, and it only took the feeling of her rushed breath against his face before he dove back in as if he were starved.

The force of such an action pushed her backwards and onto the furs, and she laughed breathily into the kiss as he climbed on top of her, caging her between his powerful arms. She felt the Champion’s grin on the corner of her mouth before he claimed her lips again, this time swiping his tongue out over her bottom lip, and it was all she could do not to keen into his touch. She welcomed him eagerly, sucking on the wet muscle as it invaded the dark cavern. This time, instead of taking his time, it seemed like he was desperately trying to map out every corner, taking time to run over her teeth and the soft area beneath her tongue. She sucked in response, her body burning with the feel of his hands which now began curling at the hem of her shirt. As soon as he got a good enough grip, it was pulled off unceremoniously, even a little roughly, and he gave an apologetic glance when she squeaked with protest.

When they reconnected, there was more skin, but it just wasn’t enough. There was a desire sitting deep within Link’s belly now where before there had only been peace. It was restless and hungry, and it demanded less clothing between the two.

As the Champion worked on Zelda’s brassiere, having new knowledge of how best to take it off from the night before, the Princess abandoned the hands in his dirty blond strands in favor of reaching between them to unbuckle his belt. She yanked the offending article off, shuddering at the feeling of the bulge in his trousers as they began to slip off. 

She palmed at it, and Link broke their kiss to hiss at the feeling, flexing his hips into the sensation. The Princess grinned, but her momentary victory was stunted when her brassiere fell to the cavern floor and her breasts filled Link’s palms. His mouth latched onto her jaw, nibbling gently on the pale skin before biting and soothing it back over with the flat of his tongue as his fingers nimbly began to generously squeeze at her chest. 

A breathy gasp was pulled from her as his fingers pinched on a rosy nipple, and her own hands tugged impatiently at his trousers that still clung to him loosely. He chuckled lowly, but made no effort to move, instead dipping a hand down to tug at her own leggings.

“Link,” she moaned as he fingered at her hip bone, shivering as the feeling of his skin left a burning trail behind it as it drifted across her milky stomach. “Please, don’t stop.”

The Champion groaned, silencing her once again with an open-mouth kiss that had her reeling with its intensity. Helplessly, she wrestled with her own calves and boots with her legs wrapped around his waist and back against the floor until her boots were kicked off. As he began pulling her leggings and underwear down in one fell swoop, she keened, clutching at his long hair as it fell over his shoulders.

She thought she heard Galen whinney by the mouth of the cave, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in her ears and how hard her heart hammered against her chest. Zelda wondered deftly if Link could hear it, but her train of thought was cut off as his fingers found her center.

The temperature in the cave had seemed to spike, and their bodies were developing a thin layer of sweat that covered them both. The fire next to them that radiated what was left of its dying heat was unwelcome, but finding the mental capacity to do anything about it was difficult. Finding the mental capacity to focus on anything, really, other than the way his fingers found her core and eased into her, was proving to be impossible. She arched her back, seeking the skin on skin contact, but even when they were as flush as they could be, she needed more. 

Mindlessly, she could hear herself begging for something that she couldn’t name, but as if he understood, Link continued to thrust his finger, add another, and bite into her collarbone as he worked. His pace quickened with every noise she let escape her, responding with his own grunts when he hit a particular spot and she would moan his name. It was deep within her, a place he could only reach with his middle finger if he curled it just right, and everytime it was hit she absolutely keened. Her body would arch as taught as a bowstring, and that inevitable precipice was looming ever closer. 

When he slipped a third finger in, and she felt the burn of discomfort in the stretch, she could only whimper and hold onto him for dear life as her world came crashing down on her. Her inner walls clamped down, as if trying to keep the fingers that continued to thrust in, but as the waves of pleasure subsided she began to squirm away at the touch. When he retracted his hand, and Zelda’s vision began to refocus, she felt sticky and hot. 

Her lungs heaved for air as she recovered, and she watched as Link curiously brought his fingers to his lips, and kitten-licked the fluid off of them. Maybe that should have revolted her, seeing as he was literally indulging in her orgasm, but it only made her shiver, arousal pulsing anew within her belly.

With strength she wasn’t aware she possessed, she detached her legs from around his waist and pushed upwards with her calves, and as they flipped, Link barely managed to keep his head from slamming into the fur-covered stone floor.

“S-sorry,” Zelda stammered, blowing loose strands of long blonde hair out of her face. 

Link laughed, and she could hear a bit of his voice in the rhythmic sound, and he leaned forward to grab her into a kiss. She melted, enjoying the feeling of his arms wrapping around her again and his hands settling at her waist. There was a moment of pushing against her that she was about to give into before she had realized she had flipped them for a reason.

“Not so fast,” she said breathlessly, shoving him back down. “You have had your fun. Now I would like to have mine.”

A red blush that started at his cheeks flew down to his neck and the top of his chest, a pretty flush that had her ogling more than she already was at the skin that was exposed to her. When he tried to reach up to hold on to her sides, she batted his hands out of the way with an impish grin on her pretty features. Link huffed, but submitted, allowing his hands to drop to his sides and onto the soft furs. Zelda smirked approvingly, twitching her head to the side to allow her hair to fall out of her way as she worked her way to his chest. Now that she was staring face to face with the large scar Calamity Ganon had left him, she traced a finger down the seam of the scar with a gentle fingertip. Below her, the Champion grunted, his heavy gaze never leaving her face. 

The Princess smoothed a hand across the length of the scar, then turned her attention to the multitudes of others that littered his skin. She had never noticed how many he had until she was this close where the slightest of skin discolorations could be seen. Many looked like small scratches, a few undoubtedly from the time he had taken a tumble through wild rose bushes. Mipha had spent hours trying to heal them, and had apologised profusely when he was left with several scars.

Others Zelda had to pause and wonder how he had gotten them. The area on his right side was less of a scar, and more of a slight discoloration of the skin. It was an irregular circle surrounding a tiny round scar, and it hit her suddenly that he must have been injected with something harmful here awhile ago. 

One was long and thin, and it reached from what looked like his forearm all the way to his collarbone. That must have been a blade’s strike.

Link felt hot under her gaze, and fidgeted nervously as she began tracing over old scars. He had flinched when she pressed against a newer one - the long one that had been dealt to him by a Bokoblin when he had just left the Temple of Resurrection. It tingled when she traced the scar Ganon had given him, and he resisted the urge to pull away at the tender feeling.

But, having satisfied her curiosity, Zelda began working her way downward, and Link felt a surge of arousal hit him in the gut. She ran her finger over the defined v of his hips, stopping just at the edge of his trousers. He had been pitching a tent there since they had started, but as her hands grew nearer and nearer it twitched with anticipation. The Princess once again palmed him through the layers, and he groaned lowly, his hands clenching at the furs beneath him. He allowed his eyes to close and his head to fall backwards only slightly, propping himself up on his elbows.

Zelda could feel the defined shape of it even through the worn clothing. She ran her finger up from the base to the tip, and she reveled in the gasp of air that he sucked in. With each brush of sensation, it seemed to move within its confines, and she watched with unbridled fascination that the small movements increased as she got closer and closer to the tip. 

Wild hunger drove her to impatience, and she finally, _finally_ began pulling his trousers down. Link’s hips lifted, allowing her more free mobility as they were shucked from him, and he kicked off his own boots much in the same way that Zelda had before. 

His cock sprang free, and even though she had seen it do the same the night before, it startled her when it slapped back against his abdomen. With slightly better lighting, she now saw that it had a redder tint to it than she had previously been able to see with a slightly discolored, purple tip. Curiosity got the best of her, and she took a hold of it. Link hummed contentedly, looking much like he was controlling his breathing manually at this point. This time, Zelda could see a vein running up the bottom of it, and she found herself brushing her thumb against it all the way to the tip where Link hissed, pushing his hips up into her grasp.

Having had enough exploration for now, she began working him in earnest, enjoying how she could now better see his expressions as her palm ran up and down his shaft. She especially loved the blissed out noises and the way his face seemed to contort into a focused look. He would try to stifle these sounds when she grazed the underside of the mushroom tip, or swiped her thumb across the top and smeared the liquid that sat on top of his slit across the rest of him. It was strange that she could feel Link’s pulse with her hand wrapped around him like this, and it was greatly rewarding when his breathing became even more labored and his hands clenched into tight fists at his side.

It was sweet, really, that he was abiding by her rules, but she was beginning to regret putting them in place as she began to feel arousal tingle between her thighs once more. Zelda could feel whatever was left of her previous orgasm and new wetness from watching the Champion enjoy himself so much below her slip down the inside of her leg, and she shuddered.

“Link,” she said, her voice husked and her eyes half-lidded. The guard immediately brought his head up enough to look at her. “I need you,” she whispered, bringing her hips down so that her sex would brush against his girth.

A choked moan left his mouth, and he relinquished his balance on his elbows to flop on the floor and raise his hands. _Are you sure?_ He signed, obviously coherent enough to understand her through the hormones shooting through his body.

She responded to him by crawling slightly farther up his body, lowering her hips so that they might touch once again. Both shuddered, and Zelda let out a wanton sound that she didn’t know she was capable of producing.

Link’s hands flew up again. _Can I touch you now?_

Zelda leaned down, next to his ear. “Please,” she whispered as she reached behind her to grasp him in her palm. He groaned, pitching his hips forward at the sensation as she lined herself up, and sank down ever so slightly. 

The moment his tip breached her entrance his hands flew up to her hips, his grip so tight that she might think that it would bruise. If only she cared right now.

The Princess was always taught that during your first time, it was not uncommon to experience pain, but all she felt was an intense discomfort and a burning stretch. She did not get far before she was pausing, chest heaving with the effort. Below her, Link was barely holding himself together, soothingly stroking her hair with a shaky hand that he had removed from its place on her hip. 

When the stretch subsided, Zelda sank just a little lower, and an overwhelming sensation rippled through her. It was the same discomfort, only this time much greater, and she struggled out a grunt with how her thighs burned from holding her up. The Champion must have realized that his grip may hurt her, so he allowed the arm that was occupied in her hair to circle around her and pull her tighter against him. She could feel his anticipation below her, but she was incredibly thankful that he was being so patient with her as she eased another inch downwards.

The process repeated a few more times, and just when she had thought she had taken all of him, she was surprised to find out he was only halfway there. Frustrated with her lack of progress, and now used to the unfamiliar sensation, she took the rest of him in one fell swoop. She hadn’t realized how overwhelming the feeling of being full would be until it was all she could think about. Her body froze, seizing around him in a way that made his abdomen go absolutely rigid. 

Zelda’s thighs shook, the effort it took to get this far catching up quickly as lactic acid gathered in the muscles. After a moment, Link’s hands left her body, and she glanced up through half-lidded eyes long enough to realize he was signing at her.

_I’m not going to last,_ he signed over and over again as quickly as he could until she nodded her head, recognizing what he had told her. Link’s rough palms then returned to her body, and held her tightly. The Princess experimentally swiveled her hips, and both moaned lowly into the other’s neck.

Below her, Link was almost trembling with the effort to hold back, but it was becoming more and more difficult as her inner walls fluttered around him, clenching and shifting with every small movement she made. 

“I can’t,” she breathed into his ear, and panic surged through him. Had he done something wrong? Was telling her that he wasn’t going to last as long as he probably should be able to a mistake? No, being honest shouldn’t be something that would ruin this. Would it?

He peeled away from her, about to ask her what was wrong before she looked away from his face. “I can’t move... “ She mumbled quietly.

Realization hit him like a carriage, and he suddenly felt rather dumb for thinking what he was. He grabbed her by her bottom, and with a squeal he shifted them enough to get her weight underneath him without separating themselves. It did, however, cause him to pull out about halfway, and they both groaned at the sensation. With new energy and greater resolve, Link flexed his hips forward.

“Link!” Zelda cried, reaching around him to grab onto his shoulder blades and back arching into him.

Link panted into her shoulder, drawing himself backwards and reveling in how her walls would clamp down as if trying to keep him inside. He released a shuddering breath as he thrust shallowly back in, and found a slow but deep rhythm that seemed to work for both of them. At her sides, the Princess appreciated how his biceps held him up, filling with blood and bulging every time he moved into her, and relaxed slightly with every backwards movement.

But as they continued, the Princess felt the knot in her belly tighten, and suddenly slow and deep just wasn’t enough anymore. 

“Faster,” she breathed. 

Never one to deny an order, Link obliged gratefully, grunting quietly with every push. His pace quickened, and the Princess found herself overwhelmed by all the pleasure that shot up her spine with every thrust, letting out higher and higher pitched moans as she came closer and closer to orgasm. 

Link’s own end was fast approaching, grabbing at her as he tried harder and harder to hold onto his self control. Part of his mind belonged to a beast he didn’t know was there, and it told him to go faster, to go deeper, to ravage her in every way he could, and to take as much pleasure from it as possible. The other half was the more reasonable, and thankfully the larger half. It told him to hold on just a little longer, to bring out another orgasm from her if he could, and to make this as good for her as possible. It told him to push deeply while still maintaining the pace she asked him for, and it made his hand reach up to cradle her face as he kissed her with every emotion that swirled through him.

Zelda was now teetering on the edge, the knot coiled so tightly that she thought it might burst. When Link had claimed her mouth, she sunk her nails into his back, raking them downwards as she tried her best to meet his thrusts. She could hear herself moaning, but it was in a voice she didn’t recognize as her own, and she could not understand a word of what it was saying. The only thing she could understand was that she was finally getting that final push, and with a cry that was swallowed by the man hovering above her, her release was upon her. Her walls clamped around Link, and she bit the junction between his shoulder and neck while her blunt nails scraped up his back.

For having held back this long, it didn’t take much for him to reach his end, but the feeling of her nails raking down his shoulder blades and the sensation of her teeth sinking in him pushed him just that far. With all the self control he had left, he quickly pulled himself out, grabbing onto and giving himself a few quick pulls before spilling onto her milky stomach with a choked groan. 

His arms gave out, and he rolled to her side before he crushed her, chest heaving. Link raked a hand through his hair, pushing the mess of his bangs backwards where they were more manageable. To his side, the Princess simply lay there with her arms sprawled, a smile on her face.

Perhaps it was the post-coital giddiness, but Link could not tear away his eyes from the Princess’s beauty. She had been born with the Goddess Hylia’s blood, but surely even Hylia was no match for Zelda’s beauty. A sweaty, heaving beauty, but a beauty nonetheless. 

Link sat up first, shaking out his hair as he pulled the longer strands back into the ponytail they were normally in, then grabbed one of the furs to drape over the Princess. He cast a glance outside. The rain hadn’t yet stopped, but the wind no longer howled, and it was a gentler shower than it was before. But now, it was undoubtedly night time. Of course there were still clouds in the sky, but the white glow of the moon behind them could be seen as Link snatched his waterskin from nearby and held it out to the girl beside him who eagerly took it and took a few swigs. This time, as if she had learnt from the spicy elixir incident, she left half left for him, and he finished it off with just a few pulls. The empty skin was tossed aside, and he grabbed a small cloth that he usually used to wash his face to clean the girl of his cum on her stomach.

She giggled, then thanked him. The Champion smiled at her, adoration in his eyes as he began collecting undergarments and clothing. He offered her her brassiere and underwear, pulling on his own pants to their side as she gingerly took them from him.

“This could not wait until morning?” She complained light-heartedly, but still began redressing herself.

_We should leave as soon as the sun rises, Princess. The rain has receded enough to ride in, and after a night without receiving word of an unplanned stay in a cave, the other castle officials will worry,_ he signed before pulling his undershirt and Champion’s Tunic over his chest in one swift motion. The scar Ganon had left behind disappeared from her view, and She fiddled with the hem of her leggings at her waist. 

Link buckled his belt, securing it in place as he tugged on his boots and tossed her her shirt that had ended up on the other side of the cave. She snatched it out of the air, and he blew out a breath through his nose in amusement. Miscellaneous objects that had ended up strewn about were collected and put back into leather satchels, and Link blew on the dying embers of the fire, only this time they were out of firewood, and it didn’t seem like the flames were coming back to life anytime soon.

Zelda tugged on the remainder of her clothing, but when she tried to stand, her legs wobbled and she collapsed in a heap back on the ground. Link turned to her with concern, his eyebrows furrowing as worry etched itself in his eyes, but the Princess only laughed.

“I am fine.This just means you did a good job,” she teased, watching his cheeks light up with a pinkish undertone and his eyes shine with mirth. 

The guard stood, looking away, and offered his hand. This time with Link to help her balance, she was able to carry her own weight under her.

_Make sure you have everything together. It would be a shame to leave something behind,_ he signed when he was sure she wouldn’t topple back to the ground.

Her prayer robes, no longer wet with how long they had been drying on the drying stand near the fire, were delicately folded and tucked into her satchel alongside the crumpled parchment of the sandwiches they had eaten as well as her journal.

They hadn’t unpacked much as there wasn’t much to unpack in the first place. Typically there would be a tent to take down, a fire to extinguish, and kitchenary items to collect and put away, but since this overnight stay had been unpredicted, there were only the personal items they both had brought with them, and it all loaded up easily on their shoulders or next to Galen’s saddlebags.

The horse had calmed down greatly, and was now dozing where he was hitched. He barely batted an eye when the princess approached him with the carrot Link had tried to lure him further into the cave with earlier, but as soon as the scent that only he could smell hit his large nostrils, his eyes opened fully and his ears pricked forward. Zelda laughed after the horse had taken the full carrot and began searching for more, the powerful stallion nosing at her pockets and hands. She began stroking the animal’s nose as Link corrected the cinch, and he watched happily as the girl he loved got along well with his mount. After a few moments of convincing Galen that she simply did not have anything more for him in a baby voice Link had only ever heard her use on Storm, the horse began nosing at her shoulder, gently grooming the fabric of her shirt.

“Look, look!” Zelda giggled, and Link wished he could hear that sound for the rest of eternity. “He’s grooming me!”

Link chuckled, nodding as his grin split open to reveal his teeth as Zelda continued.

“You’re just so sweet! Just the sweetest, yes! I bet Link never pets you like this, does he? No! I think not! Too uptight with his guard job, right, Galen?” Comically, both she and the horse turned towards him and he put his hands up in surrender as Zelda sniggered and Galen snorted.

In the following hours, Zelda took a short nap while Link watched the rain slowly fade away and the sun begin to climb over the distant mountains. The smell of fresh dew was raw and inviting, the air around him crisp. The Champion took in a deep breath, appreciating it while he still could. But, when the golden glow of the sun crested the horizon finally, he knew that he had to wake his charge.

Gently, he laid a hand on her shoulder, and she groaned slightly as she rubbed her eyes, yawned, and stretched her arms above her head.

“Time to go?” She asked sleepily, looking up at him with tired bluish-green eyes. Before Link could allow himself to stare into them, he nodded, standing up and offering her a hand. He motioned towards Galen, and with that they left the cave. This time Link didn’t bother being uptight about how they shared the saddle, and the Princess found herself with very little to complain about. They passed the time in bouts of comfortable silence, and they rode at the steadiest canter the stallion was willing to give them.

They paused at a small pond halfway through their trip to water Galen, but it ultimately only took them a few hours to get back to the castle. They really hadn’t traveled very far. The only reason it took them so long to get to the shrine in the first place because link had walked most of the way there.

Link regained his sense of modesty as they approached the castle, and even as Zelda said that no one would care if they shared a saddle, Link insisted that he walk, claiming that it was for her comfort’s sake even when it was so blaringly, obviously not. The Princess knew the consequences of what might happen if the townsfolk found out about their little relationship, but after losing herself with Link the night before, she really, truly, absolutely could not bring herself to care.

The woman who had woken her two nights ago, the maiden who had almost caught Link and her in Zelda’s chambers was the one to receive them, gasping and calling out while waddling as quickly as she could as she lifted her apron to clear the area for her feet as they approached the castle gate. The woman cooed over Zelda, expressing how worried everyone was when they hadn’t returned before the storm had hit. The Princess ensured her that they had found shelter and had just decided to weather the storm out rather than try to return in it. 

She was then ushered away by the same woman once Link had helped her off of Galen, brushing off her dirty clothing and rambling about getting a bath drawn for her and her face cleaned, but Zelda quickly dismissed the idea of having help with bathing for fear that the woman might see the marks Link had left on her. Before she could be rushed off, Zelda gave a glance back at Link who shared her gaze for a moment, before turning around and leading his horse towards the town stables. If she hadn’t known better, she would have said he looked somewhat dejected, but she was hurried around a corner too quickly to put much thought into it.


	4. A Long Road Ahead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where the plot comes in.

The next few weeks were busy. Link had back to back training every day in what they called “hell month” for the trainees, and even though Link was technically a Champion, and no one questioned his title of Hero of Hyrule, he was still required to participate as a member of the guard. 

There had been a scare when the Princess had left to watch this training in the barracks for a day. No more than three days had passed after they had returned from the shrine when she decided she wished to observe how the guardsmen trained their recruits. She had come just before the middle of the day, and most of the guard were beginning to overheat in their shirts. It was Link who led the charge of removing that garment, and Zelda had been witness to it as he wiped his face with the undershirt. The other members of the guard, however, had not missed the bite mark on his shoulder, nor the scratch marks on his shoulder blades. 

“Don’t look now, Princess!” One had called over. “Your eyes will be defiled.”

A few others had snickered at the comment before Link had strode over and kicked one of the backs of their knees and the soldier collapsed to the floor yelling obscenities. Link had cast a quick, apologetic glance her way before getting back to what he was supposed to be doing. Thankfully, no one had followed his gaze. 

Their training was mostly made up of drills, but he had been requested to join the barracks on their high-altitude training where they had left for Mount Lanayru for a week and done goddesses only know up there. Zelda hadn’t wanted him to go, but she wouldn’t be possessive enough to stop him from doing as he pleased, so for a week she put up with the three guards whose names she learned to be Aris, Edwin, and Carla.

The pair had been almost tiptoeing around each other since they returned from the cave, but not because they had wanted to. They both agreed that sneaking Link up into her chambers was never a good idea as the exit was simply too much of a risk to take, but there wasn’t anywhere else for them to get any privacy. They had continued their stolen kisses around archways when the coast was clear, and Zelda had gone so far as to stick her hands down his trousers in an alleyway when she had become pent up enough, but they were forced to separate and right themselves within a few seconds as townsfolk ventured down the same area. They cast strange looks at the two, knowing that royalty and the guard had no business in dark back alleyways in Castle Town, but no gossip was heard the following few days, and the two felt like they had dodged the tip of a blade by the skin of their teeth.

So, when Princess Zelda received news that a meeting in Zora’s Domain requested her audience, she barely contained herself from leaping with joy.

“A meeting?” She prompted the maiden, whose name was apparently Helga.

“Yes, Your Highness. King Dorephan has asked the leaders of each village and representatives of every species to attend a gathering of sorts on the third day of the fifth month. Apparently you are supposed to be the topic of this gathering, so, of course, you were invited as well,” the stout woman recounted loyally.

The date of the meeting was in exactly a week, ample time for travel, and extra time to spend with her guard should they decide to leave early enough.

“Send a response back to King Dorephan and tell him that I will attend their meeting happily, and that I look forward to seeing them,” she began, and the woman bowed respectfully. “Am I correct in assuming my guard will attend with me?” She then asked.

“Yes, Sir Link will also go with you, but just as a precaution, and if I may say as a demonstration to the people of Hyrule, I suggest you take a small entourage with you. Perhaps a wagon and a few soldiers,” Helga replied.

A pang of disappointment rushed through her, shortly followed by irritation. “Are you implying that my guard is incapable of my protection?” 

Helga’s face went awash with panic for a moment. “No, absolutely not, Your Highness, I did not mean for that to come across that way at all. You must forgive me for my lack of clarity. The only reason I suggest you take a small band with you is to make a statement. Although going with the Hero should be enough, it is good to once and awhile demonstrate power to your people. I believe that a small force like that is enough to send such a message.”

Zelda was smart, trained in enough politics to understand what her maiden was implying, but she played along for the sake of preserving her dignity. Even though she knew exactly what Helga was trying to say, the idea was still valuable enough to agree to, even if it meant costing alone time with Link. After all, her kingdom would have to come first. That was the decision she had made when she rebuilt the kingdom back from scratch after Calamity Ganon’s defeat, and she felt that abandoning that now would mean trouble later.

“You are wise to suggest that. Very well, I will assemble a small group of warriors that I believe to be fit for such a job. Thank you for your suggestion, Helga,” Zelda said with finality enough to dismiss the maiden.

With a bow, the woman ducked out of the room, and Zelda took a calming breath. So people still doubted her claim to the throne. That should have been expected, but it still made her chew on her lip pensively. Perhaps she should bring that up in the coming meeting. She wondered what that could be about. It was rare for the subject of such a gathering be withheld from its invitation, and she knew it had not just been withheld by Helga because she had handed her the envelope for her to read herself.

With much to think about, she pursed her lips and stored the invitation in her satchel and made to leave her chambers. The two guards outside, who had been put on permanent post there whenever the princess was inside her room, fell into step with her as she descended the staircase and into the popular corridor. Link had had the day off, so she had taken time to work on her research in the interest of letting him rest and enjoy whatever it was he did when she wasn’t around. Which meant he was either training with the Master Sword or in the kitchen. 

Usually, it was the kitchen, so that is where she strode off to first. The two guards were thankfully not charged to follow her as long as she remained in the castle, so they split off as soon as they arrived in the populated hallway. The Princess strode towards the dining hall, entering through the large archway and was met by a young servant girl with mousy brown hair. 

“Your Highness! My apologies, we have nothing prepared for you. Had we known you were coming, we would have prepared your favorite. Please, take a seat while we get something prepared for you,” she said, bowing deeply.

Zelda smiled warmly. “That will not be necessary, and there is no reason for apologies. I am here to find my guard. Have you seen him?”

“No, Princess, I have not.”

The blonde hummed. “Could he perhaps be in the back with the chefs and kitchen boys?” 

“I am unsure, Your Highness, but I could go look for him if you’d like?”

“That will not be necessary, I can look for myself. Thank you, though,” Zelda responded, taking long steps towards the kitchen. She was abruptly stopped, however, by the same girl.

“Your Highness, I must insist. The back of the kitchen is no place for a Princess such as yourself to be. It is not of your status. I shall go look for him in your stead,” Mousy Girl insisted. “Please, take a seat.” 

The Princess sighed, wishing she weren’t treated as much of a figure as she was. She was perfectly capable of looking for her own knight, and hearing the girl call her a “princess such as yourself” implied the kitchen-workers were lowly compared to her, when really Zelda tried as best as she could to treat everyone in the castle and in Castle Town in the same manner. But, the servant girl was having none of it, and she scurried into the kitchen, narrowly dodging a kitchen boy who carried a large platter of food. 

It took several minutes for the girl to reemerge, but behind her was none other than Link, being dragged by the cuff of his sleeve towards the Princess. He seemed to know her, and exchanged a few signs with her which she giggled at. Zelda felt jealousy curl around her, but she maintained her polite posture while they approached. The girl released him, and the two exchanged a wave as Link jogged up to sit next to his charge.

Good evening, Princess, he signed, careful to put a respectable distance between themselves that made Zelda’s mouth taste sour. All she wished for was to be able to freely be close to him, but the reality of it was that she simply could not do that.

Instead of responding, she fished the invitation out of her satchel, swinging her legs on the bench as he eyed her curiously, took it, and flipped it open. His eyes flitted over the text before he set it down and asked, _What is the purpose?_

“Not sure, but apparently I will be the topic of discussion. Whatever that means,” she explained. “Helga suggested we take an entourage as well, so if you have any guards you may want to recommend, it would be best to notify them. We should leave in two days if we wish to make it in time.”

He frowned. _I am not enough?_

She quickly soothed his anxieties, “Of course you are, but Helga advised us to make a ‘demonstration of power to the people.’ I am sure you are capable of deciphering that hidden meaning.”

Link’s frown only deepened, and the Princess had to pluck the envelope from out of his hand before his grip crushed it. 

“Anyways,” she deflated the tension, “do you have anyone immediately that comes to mind?”

Link looked thoughtful for a moment, then signed, _Hoz._

The name rung a bell, and it only took a moment for her to remember who he was. “He was the hire to guard Akkala stables, was he not?”

Link nodded, smiling.

“I do not think it fair to ask him to travel all the way from the Akkala Highlands just to make an equally far trek back,” Zelda said gently.

_I could ask him to meet us there,_ Link reasoned. 

“And how in the goddesses’ names do you plan on getting there in time?”

_I can quickly warp to the Katosa Aug Shrine nearby, let him know when we plan to arrive, and he will more than likely show._ Link grinned.

“If you insist, then of course, but I meant more along the lines of people who are immediately in Hyrule that could join us on our trek.”

_I know a few from the barracks. They are skilled guardsmen, but they are sometimes loose-lipped._

“Done,” the Princess said. “I assume we will need about eight more of us. Are these loose-lipped guardsmen en large enough masse to reach that favorable number?”

Again, Link nodded his head, his ponytail flipping with the movement. 

“Then it is settled. In two days' time please have a wagon and horses fit for travel and prepared to make a five-day hike to Zora’s Domain.”

Link stood and bowed deeply, then smiled at her. _As you wish, Your Highness._

After their conversation, Link had gone straight to the Shrine to notify Hoz of their travels, and returned a few hours later to inform the Princess that he had agreed to meet them at Zora’s Domain at the planned time. 

Without much to do but wait for the day they would leave, the two spent much of that evening and a few late hours in the library as Link collected and fetched various tomes for her research. What exactly she was researching he couldn’t begin to understand, but one of the books she had requested he fetch for her had a Silent Princess on its cover, and the memory made him smile.

When he settled down on the plush chair across from the Princess, he set the book down on the table that separated them with a knowing grin. She was taking notes from another tome, but glanced up at him through thick eyelashes, then down at the book as her own smile cracked across her face.

“It truly is interesting,” she said, her tone wistful. “I want to try to have a Silent Princess planted on a sill one day, but I cannot until I figure out why it won’t take root in our domestic soil.”

Link remained silent, but Zelda only continued to smile.

\--

“Ready?” Zelda asked the Champion while he led a group of either other guardsmen and their horses towards Castle Town’s main gate. One was on a large, wooden caravan-style wagon with royal imbuements that decorated the sides pulled by two beautiful, stockier horses - most likely drafts. 

Link led both Galen and Storm, and Zelda skipped over to the white beauty excitedly. He had been outfitted with her side saddle, despite having worn her everyday attire when she had been told her horse was going to be brought with them. 

The boy nodded, handing the reins to his mount in favor of helping the Princess onto her own. She was slung up, and Storm danced on excited feet. It had been awhile since he had left the castle, and the smell of the fresh Hyrule Field’s grasses surely had him raring to go. Zelda took a moment to soothe him, recalling Link’s words from over a hundred years ago, and the horse stood just a little stiller. 

“Good to see ya, Princess!” Called one of the guardsmen, waving eagerly with a matching, toothy grin on his face. It was the same one that had been poking fun at Link several weeks ago when he had seen the marks she had left on the crest of Link’s neck and shoulder blades after they had returned from the Shrine visit.

Another guard whacked him over the head with a helmet, and he was shushed. Zelda cast a look at Link, who threw himself up into Galen’s saddle only to shrug and smile. 

“It is good to see you too, Sir. Shall we head off, then?” She began, turning Storm to face the gates.

“Yes, Your Highness,” resounded the corus of guards, save for Link of course, who rode up next to the Princess.

“Off we go, then, gentlemen. Let us arrive at Zora’s Domain in no more than five days.”

The rambunctious guard whooped before he was once again silenced, and they all began their journey to the east. They had left in the middle of the day, keeping to their plan of sending a message to Hyrulians as the sound of the horse’s hooves was loud enough to turn several heads. The Princess felt a little ridiculous, traveling with so many people when she typically only needed Link. Especially because the wagon was so decorated, but was, in fact, empty. There was no reason for them to have taken this other than their purpose of making a demonstration.

And, for all intents and purposes, it seemed to be working, for as strange as it felt to be riding with such a large group. So, she bit back her self-consciousness as they traveled down the road south that led out of Castle Town. The guards chatted amongst themselves at a respectable distance while Link rode closely next to his charge, his eyes keeping sharp watch for anything potentially dangerous.

They rode for about twenty minutes before the road forked to the east and west, and they turned to the east. The Princess requested the Sheikah Slate, and Link handed it to her as they passed the Sacred Ground Ruins. Just like the rest of Hyrule, they were being rebuilt steadily, and she hoped that soon those grounds would cut ties with the “ruins” in its name the same way Castle Town had. There wasn’t much to be seen from the road as the main entrance of the Sacred Grounds was from the south, so the pictures she attempted to take were really just shots of the trees that surrounded it.

Folk that had established farms and homes in the Hyrule Plateau passed them, making way for the retinue. Eyes and attention were being drawn, and Zelda wondered if that was a good thing. Even if she were trying to make a statement to her people, the way they were parading through the area made them an awfully convenient target. She was about to voice her concerns to Link who rode on her right, but from the way he cast side glances at the people they passed and kept his eyes on treelines as they came and went, she could guess that he knew this already.

They couldn’t move much faster than a trot at any one time, and the carriage horses would often become more tired than the rest of them, so at least a third of the day was spent at the walk. At the second peel in the road, they had veered back northward towards the road that went through the Romani Plains and crossed the Orsedd Bridge. The Princess found it rather inconvenient that they hadn’t just left from the east gate to begin with, but when she complained of this to her guard he reminded her that they were also demonstrating, so she dealt with the massive waste of time with an indignant huff.

When they possibly could have made it to Thims Bridge in the amount of time they had wasted leaving from the south gate, they had only made it halfway there, and as the sun began to set, they pitched camp in a small clearing a ways off the road. Having stopped to water the horses earlier in the day, they were instead hitched and allowed to graze where they could reach on the rich Hyrulian grass just north of Crenel Peak. A guard had set her tent up for her while another worked on gathering firewood, and another cleared an area of flammable things to set up a small campsite. Link was tasked with cooking, as he seemed to be used to, and the Princess was surprised to find a cooking pot and several ingredients stashed in the wagon that she hadn’t known they had brought with them.

The eight guards seemed rather chummy with Link, slapping him on the back and causing him to stumble when they took a bite of the stew he had prepared for them all. It was after the third strike that Link grabbed the attacker’s wrist, as if daring them to do it again. It didn’t.

Zelda watched them all amusedly, sipping from her own bowl of stew. She had tried to remain quiet, feeling a little out of place as she didn’t know any of the others. The loud one’s name was Reither, and the one who had disciplined his boisterousness at the main gate was Gouther, a quieter and taller man. There was only one woman in the group, a redhead by the name of Elia who could apparently outdrink any of her friends. 

“Don’t bother,” Reither wheezed as one of the guards whose name Zelda still wasn’t sure of tried to cross glasses with Elia. “She’ll drink you out of your tight little breeches any day!”

The guard had grumbled, backing down and they all began laughing. Link spat out his drink when another unexpected hand was clapped against his back, and even an more uproarious chorus of howls and guffaws rang out. Even Zelda offered a few giggles, and Link’s face colored red with embarrassment. 

As they began to settle into their place, most of the guardsmen remained gathered around the campfire, but seeing his Princess off on her own pulled at Link’s heart. He excused himself where there was an opening, ignoring the coos of Reither as he watched the Champion join Zelda on her solitary log a few meters away. Gouther smacked him over the head, and Elia joined in his chastisement by demanding he quit being so inappropriate.

“They are loud,” Zelda chuckled, supping from her own mug of ale. It hadn’t been filled completely, only about a fourth of the way. Link had done this knowing how his Princess handled alcohol, and she had thanked him for it when it was handed to her. Even now, an hour after receiving it, Zelda had only gotten through half of what she was given.

_They are good people,_ Link signed, smiling.

“Do any of them even know how to communicate with you?” She inquired, meeting his eyes.

Link shook his head. I usually do not need to.

After a beat of silence, Link brought himself to his feet. He reached for her cup, and before he could take it away from her, she tipped the glass and finished off the two gulps that were left. The Champion laughed breathily, and now the girl handed him her glass willingly. He gingerly placed them in a crate where they were keeping dirty dishes until they got to a point where they could stop and wash them.

_You ought to get some rest, Your Highness._ He gestured towards her tent which was off to the side of the wagon. 

“Worried I will soil you and your group of misfits’ fun?” Zelda teased, but made her way towards the tent anyway.

_No,_ he began, crinkling his nose. _Afraid they will say something disrespectful to you in their current unpresentable states._

She laughed, and he continued. _I promise that this is not what all the guard is like._

“Oh, do not apologize. They are Hylian, just like the rest of us. There is no shame in finding joy in one’s life.”

Link’s eyes shone for a moment, but he broke the eye contact in favor of opening the tent’s flap for her to go in. But, just as the Princess was about to duck into her temporary space, Link grabbed her and spun her towards the back of the wagon, catching her in a kiss that stole her breath away.

Zelda did not have time to respond properly before he had already separated from her. He smiled at her shocked, blushing face, then tucked a stray strand of hair out of her face. He reached up to scratch the bridge of his nose bashfully before reaching for the flap of the tent again.

This time the Princess gave him a sly smile as she hurried inside, half expecting him to follow her, but he stayed outside dutifully.

_My area is just next to yours, but we should not do anything on this trip lest the others catch on._ His hands made fluid motions as he communicated with her, and she found a certain beauty in it the same way she found beauty and grace in the way he wielded the Master Sword. _Goodnight, Princess._

“Good night,” she bade him, and the tent flap fluttered closed.

When she woke the next morning, the camp was already abuzz with life. It was barely sunrise when Link had wrestled her from her sleep, letting her know that they were leaving within an hour. From her travels with him, she knew that that meant it was time to eat before they left and to gather anything she brought with her so they could take her tent down. Zelda nodded, yawning as the Champion allowed the tent’s flap to close behind him. Already Reither was chatting, but shut respectfully up as the Princess emerged from her temporary sleeping quarters. They all gave a curt bow before busying themselves again with taking their camp down.

Apparently a horse had gotten loose during the night, so Gouther was missing for the first thirty minutes until he showed up covered in mud and leading Elia’s horse by the reins back to camp. The redhead had squealed, thanking him several times and chastising the chestnut mare as if it understood a word of what she was saying. The Princess took a moment to appreciate Storm’s loyalty to his hitch, stealing a sugarcube from the small tray of them meant for the bitter caffeinated drinks the guard apparently had every morning and instead giving it to the shire who happily ate it up.

Link handed her a small skewer of meat and vegetables, and although it was not the most dignified food item to eat, she did her best not to smear it across her face as she took bites. She wondered at what ungodly hours the Champion had been up at in order to make something like this. Not that he was slow at cooking, in fact many might say he did it within a few seconds, but it was still incredible how quickly he managed to throw things together.

Half an hour later the camp had been completely packed up, and Elia stomped out the last remaining embers of the fire before jumping onto her horse. They all continued their journey, staying their eastern course when they came to another fork in the road. They crossed Thims Bridge not long later, then headed southwards, following the river. They paused at Zelo Pond to water the horses and clean out the cooking ware, but were back on the path within an hour. 

While they were stopped, the Princess had caught a frog, cooing at it softly before it leapt out of her reach and back into the reeds. It was at Inogo Bridge that they again pitched camp, and a night similar to the last transpired. 

The following day, they all made it to Luto’s Crossing, where they spent their final night and celebrated that they were going to make the final stretch into Zora’s Domain a day earlier than expected. It was this night that Zelda attempted to interact with the other guardsmen when Link had lured her over with another tiny glass of ale.

“Oh, come on. Let the Princess live a little!” Cried Reither, appalled by her absence of alcohol in her cup.

“Oh, I, um, I really do not do well with alcohol,” Zelda said softly, keeping her eyes on the fire and not on the loud guard across from her.

“That’s just because y’aint had a chance to build up a tolerance,” Elia said dramatically. “What a shame, too.”

“Alright, enough chit-chat. Give me your cup,” Reither demanded, holding an expectant hand out to her.

“Truly, it is not a good idea,” the Princess insisted.

“Well, you’ll never know if you don’t try, right?” Reither made to grab the cup anyway, but Link stood and snatched his wrist before he could touch it. 

He cast a cold glare at the boisterous guard before releasing him, blue eyes filled with a dangerous wrath. Reither sat down heavily, bowing his head. “My apologies, Your Highness. I was out of place.”

“That is alright,” Zelda said quietly.

An awkward silence settled over the group before Elia started up a new topic, prattling on about how their surroundings reminded her of their travels to Nirvata Lake when they had traveled to Mount Lanayru a few weeks ago as part of their training.

After a few moments, Link made to stand. Offering a hand out to the Princess which she gratefully took. _I would not have recommended we bring him if I had known he was so pushy. My apologies, Zelda,_ he signed as he accompanied her to her tent.

“As long as he does not do that again, then all is well,” Zelda replied, happy to see him use the special sign he had made up for her name. It was not often that he addressed her by name, after all.

_I will make sure he is corrected._ Link was rarely ever an aggressive person, but when she saw the dangerous glint in his eyes, she felt a chill go down her spine.

“Okay,” she replied weakly, then glanced at the fire. She strained her neck to see, and figured that this was as good as any time out of the line of sight of the other guards to chance a quick kiss. It was indulgent, feeling his lips against hers after that many days, and she savored its brief warmth before she pulled away.

“Goodnight, Sir Link,” she sang, slipping into her tent and leaving him slightly frazzled. Now safely within her own space, she calmed her beating heart. That was about as much as the two were able to be close recently, and it killed her that they had to hide what they had. If she were not royalty, perhaps they could have had a life together. Tucked away in Link’s home in Hateno Village that he apparently owned.

It painted a very pretty picture, really. They could own a shop of some kind, or maybe become artisans. They would share a bed happily, come home everyday to have supper, and to wake up in each other’s arms. 

Or they could live nomadically, like Link had lived between the short time after his reawakening and when they had defeated Calamity Ganon. Zelda could see them scaling mountains, and camping out in shallow outcoves or caves like they had all those weeks ago. Link would make strange foods from the wild ingredients, and Zelda would live freely and without responsibility out in the wild lands of Hyrule.

But no such reality could be made. Perhaps she could have chosen such a fate for herself and her guard after Calamity Ganon was defeated, but she had instead chosen her people and her country. And ever the loyal soldier, Link had helped her. 

As he always had.

As he always would.

It was too late now to change her mind. Two years too late, in fact. She had committed herself to the kingdom’s resurrection, and her efforts had slowly become reality. Though, the Princess supposed that at some point or another one had to grow up. They had to face their duties and take the responsible route. She had been trained all her life to prepare for an evil that she was unprepared the first time to face, and she would be damned if she left all the progress she had made since then behind.

That was especially why she needed sleep tonight - to be rested and ready to face whatever the meeting tomorrow had to do with her. So she crawled over to the soft furs and the fluffy pillows inside her tent, and she took a long, long breath before she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

\--

The wooden wheels of the wagon clattered onto Luto’s Crossing early the next morning, the guardsmen cheerfully chattering amongst themselves. The horses’ hooves beat down against the stone eagerly as they faced the final stretch of their journey. Today, Storm had been particularly difficult with the Princess, clamping down on his bit and dragging her forward into a springy trot. It wasn’t until Link had rode Galen up beside him and seized the shire’s reins before he could gallop off. 

“I do not understand how I can keep him under control,” Zelda whined, frustrated with the animal’s lack of cooperation. “I have tried being nice to him, and still he takes advantage of my kindness.”

With two horse’s reins in his hands and trying to steer around gravelly patches as they rounded Ruto Mountain, Link barely managed to messily sign, _We can switch if you like, Princess._

Despite her frustration and grudge that she was building against the animal, Zelda was no quitter. She shook her head furiously, then continued. “There must be some trick to it, right? How have you managed to get Galen on your side? He used to be such a terror in the stable a year ago, but as soon as he was assigned to you, he became a puppy!”

Link glanced down to his mount, the clydesdale’s ears pinned against his neck from having to deal with the younger, more spirited horse at his side. However, even though the horse was clearly irritated, he trotted along without setting a single hoof wrong. The Champion shrugged. _They all have different personalities. It takes time to get to know them._

The Princess sighed deeply. “Then what could I improve on?”

He averted his eyes for a moment, finding the trees in the distance suddenly very interesting.

“Oh, don’t be that way. I can take it!” She reassured him, fisting her hands into Storm’s white mane.

Link glanced at her, then down at Storm, then back up to her. _For starters, know when to demand obedience._

Zelda’s jaw dropped. “But that is evil! I do not want to trap him into a corner and force him to do something he would rather not do.”

Link shook his head. _I meant more along the lines of not taking his misbehavior. Know where to draw the line and demand that line not be crossed._

“And how do I do that?” 

The hero’s hands twitched. _You demand,_ he signed, unable to find another way to put it.

“What does that mean!” Zelda was confused now, but his vagueness irritated her slightly.

_Princess, you are a very kind person, but Storm takes advantage of this. He knows that there will be no consequences when he misbehaves, so he simply keeps doing it._

“So you are telling me I am a pushover?” She concluded, frowning.

Link looked like he would rather be anywhere else at that point, but he knew he couldn’t not answer a direct question. _On a horse, yes._ He looked away.

Zelda felt that she should probably be offended by this, but instead all she could muster was a laugh. His head whipped towards her, eyes wide until he cracked his own grin and joined her.

“So then,” she said after her bout of giggles had ran its course, “what can I physically do?”

_When he speeds up without your command, pull back slightly. Not too hard, but feel his mouth on the end of the reins. Have contact._ He demonstrated by legging Galen up slightly, then slowing him back down. 

After the Princess had studied this movement, a look of determination crossed her features. “And when he bites down on the bit?”

U _se a little more force, but still avoid pulling back too hard. If he does this frequently we can swap the bit for something a little stronger._

“And when he turns without asking him to?”

Link looked thoughtful for a moment. _If he tries to turn in an unfavorable direction, ask him to turn the opposite way. So if he wishes to go left when you want to go straight, veer him to the right instead, then correct him on his straight path once more._

Zelda nodded, drinking in the information. She knew the basics of riding, but she had never been put on such a young horse before. Storm was all of seven years old, and the energy in his step was simply more than the Princess was used to. When she had learnt, her father had put her on an older wagon horse, and the mare she rode one hundred years ago had been her own age at the time. 

Link promised to teach her more when there was time and space to do so, and she beamed. Zelda tried to take her reins back with this new knowledge under her belt, but Link had shaken his head, insisting that it was a bad idea to try out these training techniques with such limited trail space. 

So the Princess had huffed indignantly as she was towed towards Zora’s Domain, feeling rather embarrassed that she couldn’t even control her own horse. No wonder the people of Hyrule had such little faith in her. 

She forced herself out of this spiralling train of thought, looking up instead at the scenery. A sliver of Ruto’s Lake that fed into Zora’s Domain could be seen through the treeline as they followed the path around the north side of Ruto Mountain. The slow-moving water glittered as the sun bounced off of it, and if she squinted she could see Octorok fins dashing up the stream. 

Birds called out around them, and distant clouds foretold a coming rain. Because of this, the wind stirred just slightly too strongly, but Zelda felt no rush. They were only a few hours away from Zora’s Domain. All they had to do was climb the rest of the short way up the winding trail, cross the Great Zora Bridge, and they would have arrived at their destination. The Princess breathed long and deep, sucking in the crisp smell of wetlands and grass. 

Anxieties could wait. Now was not the time to panic. Now was not the time to overthink. 

As the girl closed her eyes, Link watched her longingly, adoration that she could not see shining in his eyes. Her beauty was admired throughout Hyrule, but it was spoken of by people who watched her from afar. It came from the guardsmen who had little more to talk about; it came from the store boy who had just sold Her Highness a bouquet of wildflowers; it came from the old farmer who lived to the south, trying to convince his eldest daughter to chase after such a woman. 

But to Link, there was more. Everyone knew the Princess’s gentle heart, but they did not know its full extent. Only Link had witnessed that. Time and time again, it had shown through when times became hard. 

And that was a gift he never planned on taking advantage of. Because no matter who else stood and gazed at her, none would gaze with the same knowledge that Link had. 

Storm skipped a step, and the Champion pulled the horse back. The Princess jerked at the sudden motion, her eyes flying open, and Link’s eyes fell back on the road ahead of them. 


	5. Zora's Domain

It took four more hours for them to reach the Great Zora Bridge, and they were met at its foot by several Zoran guards. They stood as tall as the wagon, but they bowed on their short legs as the entourage came into sight. They were all grey and blue in color, holding menacing spears that LInk happened to also have as a reward from Dorephan himself after freeing Divine Beast Vah Ruta.

“Your Highness, we welcome you to Zora’s Domain,” said the one in front, clearly an authority of sorts judging by the discolored crest on the chestplate that hung from his shoulders. “Although we did not expect you a day early, King Dorephan requests your audience.”

“Please, rise,” the Princess responded, and the soldier did just that. “We will see the King at his earliest convenience. Thank you for your hospitality.”

The soldier smiled, then gestured towards the rest of the bridge. As if it were planned, the guards behind him parted swiftly, making way for the party to travel onwards. “Please, allow me to escort you into our capital.”

The group followed the Zoran through, and down the long straight path ahead of them. Zelda marveled at the many spires and fountains, gazing into the clear waters on the other side of the guardrail where fish swam upstream alongside other Zorans. Two smaller children raced up alongside the bridge, peeking their heads out of the water. One beamed, then turned to the other and pointed at the Princess. 

She waved, smiling at them. They laughed joyfully, swinging back to look at each other before they peeled off around a pillar and Zelda did not see them again. She turned to Link, about to say something, when he too waved at something in the water. Stretching up, the same children giggled, allowing themselves to be taken backwards by the current. The Champion chuckled, his teeth showing as he smiled, and she couldn’t help but stare for a moment.

Falls of water cascaded around them, a kind of tranquility in the sound of the deafening crash of water against rock. The Princess drank it in eagerly, feeling the gentle tickle of showering water droplets falling against her face, listening to the lulling sound of the horse’s hooves hitting stone, and inhaling the sweet air.

As they made their way towards the end of the great bridge, the spiraling aqueducts catching her eye. Of course she had been to Zora’s Domain before, but it had been a very very long time. They had visited once after Calamity Ganon, but only briefly to discuss political matters that needed to be taken into effect in order to restore the kingdom. But the feeling of crossing into the blue, watery landscape of this beautiful land never got any less magical. 

The procession advanced, and when they reached the gate, the guardsmen dismounted their horses, and a few soldiers led the animals away. Storm looked rather unsure about the fish-person leading him, but the Zora was having none of it, and whisked the horse away before it had a chance to yank his reins away.

Three of the Hylian guards stayed behind to tend to the carriage and follow after the Zoran soldiers who had taken the horses while the remaining five followed after the Princess and the Champion. In the center of the main square loomed the statue of Mipha, and the two shuddered under her kind, stony gaze.

“Right this way, Your Highness,” the Zoran captain insisted, casting his hand out towards the center room where King Dorephan’s throne sat. 

Both Link and Zelda snapped out of their trances staring at the statue, then followed the proffered hand’s lead. As they stepped into the blue throne room, King Dorephan sat heavily in his chair, leaning his chin on his wrist. Link and the rest of the Hylian guards fell to their knees, and Zelda curtseyed.

“Welcome to Zora’s Domain,” the king boomed, his voice echoing around the room. “It has been a rather long time.”

“Yes, it has,” Zelda replied curtly, her face frozen with a pleasant smile. “Might I ask the purpose of the gathering that should take place tomorrow?”

The king stared at her, his gaze unwavering and stony like Mipha’s was. The Princess tensed under his stare, but did not flinch. There was a very long silence, before he suddenly slapped his hand down on the throne’s arm. He guffawed loudly, a jovial smile splitting his lips and revealing several rows of shark-like teeth, and the sudden uproar startled her.

“Forgive me, Your Highness, you have always been so uptight. Even when you were so young. Please, forget the formalities, little one. Welcome to my domain,” he said loudly, 

Zelda relaxed, thankful that she wouldn’t have to keep up the exhausting facade of a political figure in front of such a man. She had visited many times in the past as a child, and King Dorephan had always been so kind to her.

“You are a day early! The gathering is not until tomorrow,” the king said.

“We covered more ground in our time spent traveling than I anticipated. Forgive us for any inconvenience this may have caused you,” the Princess replied.

The king slapped his knee. “My dear, having guests is never an inconvenience. How long did you travel for?”

“Four days.”

“Ah, then you must be exhausted. Fear not, for we are a people of anticipation, and we have prepared for you lodging that you are welcome to stay in throughout the duration of your stay here. There is space for your guards as well nearby.”

The Princess bowed gratefully. “We greatly appreciate your efforts, Lord Dorephan, thank you.”

“Anything for such esteemed guests. Please, relax today as you leave your tiring trip behind you. As fate would have it, the Gerudo have also arrived early, and we have decided on a banquet tonight. The meeting will be held tomorrow evening after a light supper, so please take time to enjoy your stay here.”

“We cannot thank you enough,” Zelda repeated, smiling at him.

“Of course, Princess. Yua here will lead you to your lodgings. Once you are settled, feel free to unwind. The time is your own to pass,” Dorephan concluded, smiling at her through wrinkled eyes.

Yua, a young Zora maiden approached quickly, then dipped her head clumsily into a deep bow. “Your Highness, please follow me to your quarters.”

As the group began to be herded westwards, Zelda stopped and turned back to the king. 

“Really, what is the topic of tomorrow’s meeting?” She asked.

King Dorephan looked up, glancing at her out of the side of his eyes. “Why, you, of course,” he said.

“What _about_ me?” 

The king smiled “You will find out tomorrow, Your Highness, fear not. I assure you, it is nothing bad.”

That, however, did nothing to soothe her anxieties as she was swept out of the throne room by the young maiden. Link shadowed her and the rest of the guards walked silently behind them for the first time since they had begun their travels. Not for lack of conversation, but out of respect. It was strange, really, seeing them all merry and boisterous on the road, but professional and serious when in this setting.

It was easy to forget that under their uniforms, past their gauntlets, beneath their skin was another person.

They walked for several minutes down a winding corridor until they came to a hallway with a tall, arched ceiling. There was a blue rug that lined it, much like Hyrule Castle’s, but the walls here were encrusted with sparkling turquoise instead of decorated with elaborate paintings. Zelda felt dizzy walking through the unfamiliar halls, but Link looked anything but daunted. In fact, he looked rather unconcerned, as if he had already memorized its layout.

Yua led them to the right, and up to a large door. “Your Highness, these are your quarters. We hope they are suitable, and that you will please come to us if you feel there is something amiss.”

“I am sure they will be fine. Thank you, Yua,” Zelda said, smiling at the tall Zora.

She blushed, then grabbed the handle and held the door open for her to enter, stiffly gesturing inside. The door closed gently behind her as she walked in, and Link was about to follow her inside before Yua stopped him.

“Your chambers are this way, Hero,” she sang, gesturing at the room next door. “And your quarters are over here,” she continued, directing the other guards. The Zora drifted away with the rest of them, and Link was left to explore his chambers. It was curious that he had received his own room when the rest of the guards seemed to be sharing one, but he was never to complain about having privacy.

As he creaked the door open, it revealed a spacious area with a bed tucked into its corner. Shelves lined the eastern wall, and curiously enough, a fireplace was shoved on the north lined by bookshelves and a plush couch in front of it. A lonesome wardrobe stood in the corner next to the bed, as well as another door that he assumed connected to a lavatory.

All their cargo had been on the wagon, so there wasn’t anything to unpack. Instead, he got his barings on the room. The ceilings were arched, but there was a window with a balcony that overlooked a cave-like hidden grove with a small waterfall that glowed with bioluminescence and weeping willows whose hanging leaves were swept northwards with the gentle current of the spring.

Out of habit, he checked for easy exit routes. There was a small vent in the corner of the room, no doubt connected to the grove where the air was certainly cooler. There were obviously the windows he could break out of if need be, and there was also the door he entered from. A dumbwaiter was next to the bed, and it looked like he could probably squeeze into it.

With nothing more to do, he exited back into the corridor, striding over to Zelda’s temporary chambers. He was about to knock when the door was opened suddenly, leaving his hand hanging dumbly in the air. 

The Princess jumped, her hand flying to her chest as she gasped. “Oh, Link, you scared me!” She breathed.

_My apologies,_ he signed. _Would you like me to fetch your items from the wagon?_

“Oh, do not be so formal,” she tutted, waving a finger in his face and stepped out of her room. He shuffled backwards to make room for her. “I will help you. Lead the way.”

Link chuckled, taking point to bring them out of the twists and turns of their lodgings. It was almost strange how easy he made it look, and Zelda couldn’t help but ask, “Have you been here before?”

The Champion shook his head, falling into step next to her.

“How is it then that you know where you are going?”

_I pay attention._ Before she could retaliate, he flicked her on the forehead.

The Princess pouted dramatically, taking a few quicker steps to catch up to him when he slowed to nurse the red mark where he had gotten her.

They rounded two other corners and they were suddenly exiting through a small outcove that emptied into the main plaza. Mipha’s statue faced to their right, and Link hesitated a step before continuing on his path. The Zora had led the horses eastwards, so Link led them that way. 

A guard stopped them before they could enter the small entrance by holding his spear out in the way of the archways that led to the stable.

“Forgive us, we simply want to retrieve our items,” Zelda said to the tall soldier. 

Silently, he nodded, retracting his spear and allowing them entrance.

The area opened up into another grand plaza-looking place, only surrounding them were now stables where horses were pacing in their stalls. Their tack had been removed and balanced on the protective blue railings that kept them in with an elegant arch over the gait that they could stick their heads out of. 

Galen, straight ahead, pricked his ears forward upon seeing the blond ponytail across the way, and whinnied shrilly as he moved to poke his nose out of the stall. Link jogged forward, stroking his velvety nose as he slung the saddlebags and cargo that had been removed from the animal and placed in a pile under the tack.

Storm was two stalls down, and knickered when the princess approached him.

“Aw, I missed you too,” she cooed as the white stallion from over the guardrail. 

Link bent to collect the smaller saddlebags, piling them onto his shoulder with his own. 

The wagon had been parked along the side and out of the way of the foot traffic of the stables. Zorans rushed back and forth, obviously not used to taking care of so many horses as they as a species did not ride them. A younger, perhaps adolescent, Zora heaved a bucket full of water towards the two darker carriage horses that had been hooked up to the caravan befor, and now greedily ate whatever they had been given in their feed troughs.

“Ah, Princess,” called a stable worker, a pale Zora with kind eyes and a soft smile. “What can we help you with?”

The Princess returned his grin with one of her own. “We have come to collect our things, if that is alright.”

“Oh!” He said, turning towards the wagon then back at them. “A few of our workers have actually already gone to deliver your things to your rooms, Your Highness. We were not aware that you wished to retrieve them yourselves.”

“Oh, if it is already taken care of then I suppose I must thank you. We will be taking these saddlebags, though. They were left in the tack by the horses we brought with us.”

“My apologies, we did not realize that was part of your cargo. Had we known we would have had that brought with the group that just went to drop off the rest of your belongings. If you would like, we can also send those to join the rest of your things?” He asked, never breaking eye contact.

“That is alright, but thank you for your kind offer,” Zelda responded.

“Of course, Your Highness.” Behind him, the Zora was called over by a group of others who were having issues separating a large bale of hay. “E-excuse me, Princess. I must go help them. We are not experienced with these land creatures,” he chuckled nervously before skipping off to join them.

Zelda turned to Link, and they both shrugged. “I suppose we should drop the saddlebags off, then.”

The Champion nodded, and they began making their way back towards their quarters. As they passed through the archway, a tall red Zora and a short, red-headed and dark-skinned girl both turned to stare at them.

“Little Hero!” Cried Sidon, running over. Link frowned when the Zora did not stop as he got closer, and nearly dropped the saddlebags when he was swept up into the large arms of the excited man. “How good it is to see you again!”

Zelda giggled at Link as he was crushed in the unyielding grasp of the young prince, joined shortly by Riju who had sauntered over.

“Hello again, Princess,” the Gerudo said, bowing her head respectfully. “I was under the impression you would join us tomorrow.”

“As did I,” Zelda concurred as Sidon finally released his hold on the Champion.

“Princess! It is so refreshing to see you again! You wound me, leaving for so long. All of you, actually! How dare you all hide your faces away from a friend for such a prolonged period of time,” Sidon whined, pouting his lip between sharp teeth.

Zelda laughed. “We have been busy rebuilding a kingdom, Sidon. It is not easy business.”

“Hey, I understand, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The small one and I were just talking about how great it would be to see you both again.”

“You must stop calling me that,” Riju sneered. “We are closer in age than you might think.”

“And yet you are so small, and I am so large. Hence the name, small one,” he goded, the decorative chains that hung from his neck jangling with his movements.

“You ought not seek her wrath, Sidon. You will be met with a force you may not be able to handle,” Zelda laughed.

_A force to be sure,_ Link signed, though Zelda was the only one to catch the movements of his hands.

“She’s right, you know, fish boy. Just keep doing it, and see what happens,” Riju said, a playful threat on her tongue.

“Mercy, mercy!” Sidon cried, shrinking away comically. They all chuckled before Sidon looked at the Champion and his charge. “So what brings you by the stables?”

“We were going to collect our things, but it seems your stable men have already taken care of it,” Zelda explained.

“Except for some, it seems,” he said, gesturing to the saddlebags, now slightly more wrinkled, slung over Link’s shoulder again.

“Ah, they had not recognized them as our cargo and instead as tack for the horses. We were just headed to drop them off.”

“I see! Perhaps you would like to join Riju and I in the hot springs then afterwards? We could accompany you to your chambers, then we could all go together. It is just a short climb up some hills.” Sidon’s eyes were alight with excitement, and he clenched his fists in front of him as he bent slightly to look at her.

Zelda exchanged a look with Link, then both nodded eagerly.

“Let’s drop off those bags, then,” Riju whooped, blazing the trail back towards the lodgings.

The four chattered as they walked, doing their best to keep an eye out when Link lifted his hands to catch what he said before continuing the conversation. When they arrived at their respective rooms, Link handed Zelda her saddle bag before splitting off with Sidon to drop off his own. Neatly tucked next to the bedends were their trunks, and Riju helped Zelda take hers apart. In Link’s room Sidon recounted every fun adventure he had gone on while the Champion was away with the Princess, and Link drank it in eagerly. He hadn’t brought much to begin with, just a few changes of clothes and his Zora armor simply because, well, they were in Zora’s Domain.

“Oh! You brought your armor! We can definitely use that to go swimming or something,” Sidon cheered, watching Link fold it and tuck it into the wardrobe.

_If there is time,_ the Champion signed, grinning. _Remember why we are all here._

“Boo, you,” the Zora droned. “Need everything always be business?”

_When we are here on business, it does need always be business,_ the Champion gestured. 

“Yes, but you have all of the rest of today. And most of tomorrow, save the evening. And even then, you’ll probably end up staying at least another day or so before returning to Hyrule Castle, right?”

That will depend on how the meeting goes, I suppose.

“Will you be joining us?”

In the meeting?

“No, in death Link,” Sidon deadpanned. “Yes, in the meeting.”

The Champion grinned. _If the other royal guard join, then I suppose I will. Otherwise I will wait outside until all is finished._

“Ugh, that would be so boring,” the Zora groaned loudly. “Hopefully you can sit in. I don’t see why you couldn’t. After all, your charge will be in there, and they cannot stop you from doing your duty.”

_Here’s hoping._ Link folded the last pair of trousers in his trunk, 

In Zelda’s chambers, the girls had entered and all but threw themselves on the sprawling mattress of the bed.

“Are you housed near here?” Zelda asked.

“Just up two floors, even though the stairs are miles away,” Riju responded, her red hair fanning across the lavish maroon sheets.

Zelda giggled, then sat up, reaching down at where her feet hung over the bed to unlatch the large trunk that held her belongings. She had brought three dresses with her, agonizing over the thought of having to wear such dressy items to this sure-to-be-suffocating meeting.

“Say, Riju?” She asked, and the adolescent sat up. “Were you informed of the reason for our gathering?”

The girl frowned, sitting up. “No, actually. I thought it strange as well. All that was mentioned in the invitation was that we would be discussing Her Highness the Princess.”

Zelda hummed, her brow furrowing. 

“You’re not worried, are you?” Riju asked.

“King Dorephan told me there was nothing to worry myself about, but it makes me uneasy that the subject of our gathering hasn’t been disclosed to anyone. Does Sidon know?”

“I’m not sure, I didn’t think to ask. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be boring political stuff anyway. Like always.” The redhead blew out a puff of air that sent a stray strand of hair flying out of her face.

“Yes, I suppose so,” Zelda said softly.

“Truly, Princess, don’t get yourself too worked up. Only time will tell, and now is not time yet. Can I help you with your unpacking?”

The blonde smiled warmly. “That would be lovely, thank you.”

The adolescent hopped down from the bed, reaching into her trunk and asking where she would like this belt or that shirt. But as Zelda lifted out a sweater from the bottom, Riju looked down into the pits of the wooden container and gasped, lunging for a lacy white brassiere and underwear that had been piled neatly next to each other.

“What is this!” She cried, leaping out of the Princess’s reach when Zelda started, mortified by what was in the redhead’s grasp.

“Nothing for children; give that back!” She swiped the garment out of her hands, her face burning a deep shade of red.

“Who? Who?” Riju demanded excitedly, now propping her chin up on her palms as she laid stomach-down on the mattress.

Zelda simply forwent the rest of her folding for later as it was all shoved haphazardly into the wardrobe. In reality, she had completely forgotten she had taken that set with her. “My self, of course! Who else?!” She demanded, her voice more of a squeak than anything else.

“Oh please! You should see your face right now, Zelda. If there were a mirror in here I would tell you to go take a look at your reflection. Your face says it all! Now, spill!”

“Absolutely not, This is not a subject for children anyhow, so even if there were someone, I would absolutely not tell you,” Zelda squawked.

“I am not that young! My fifteenth birthday is within the next month, and Buliara has already insisted I look into suitors.”

“Good for you! I have not!” 

“Oh, please, Zelda! Please, please, please tell me! I promise to keep it secret! It must be someone you traveled with, right? You only came with guardsmen, so it must be one of them!” The girl was too close to the truth for the princess’s comfort, so she was silenced by a wack over the shoulder with a plush pillow. 

“It is!” Riju cried, her grin splitting her expression into one of joy. “Which one? The beautiful orange-haired one? The dark-eyed handsome one with brown hair? Or perhap-”

She was silenced by another wack, and suddenly the door was flung open. “Ladies! We have come to bring you to the gorgeous hot springs courtesy of, you guessed it, Sidon of Zora’s Domain. And Link, too, if you count the sidekick,” Sidon said, taking long steps into the center of the room.

Link followed tentatively, peering around the corner to find Zelda red-faced and clutching a pillow defensively next to Riju.

“Y-yes, let us go, then,” Zelda stuttered, ignoring Riju’s giggles that echoed across the room.

“Don’t you know that it is rude to enter without being invited in? Let alone a man to barge into a woman’s chambers,” Riju sneered, taking up long strides to fall into step next to the Zora.

“I have a certain charm that often lets me off the hook!” Sidon explained, pride gracing his features.

“You make a habit of such a thing, then?” Riju pressed further in a teasing manner.

“Of course not, you gutter-minded child. What know you of the goings of myself, anyway! I say…” Sidon repented dramatically.

The two continued to banter back and forth as Link joined Zelda, still blushing as red as a ripe Hylian tomato. 

Okay? He signed.

“Just wonderful,” she replied a little too quickly, not being able to bring herself to meet his eyes.

“Come now, people, we have hot springs to sit in and not a lot of daylight left to do so!” Called Sidon from ahead of them, walking confidently backwards as he exited the lodging area.

“We are following, do not worry,” said the Princess, shaking off her blush and taking a few quicker steps to join the Zora and the Gerudo.

This left Link to take up the rear, feeling rather confused and hurt at her lack of interest in speaking with him.

\--

Sidon let out a long breath, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of the hot water as it enveloped his body. Behind him, the other three stared. Riju with disgust, Zelda with a renewed flush of embarrassment, and Link with one that lacked any nameable emotion.

“Oh, come on. None of us are strangers here. Join me!” He said, turning around in the water.

“You never said there was just one spring,” Riju said, her face contorted with horror.

“I never said there would be more than one, either, small one. And stop looking at me like that, I never wear your suffocating pants anyway. And we’re all friends! Just get in!”

Riju paused before shrugging. “This is against the law in most lands,” she grumbled.

“That’s the spirit!” Sidon cheered, deciding it was good enough to get her into the spring at all, even if her clothes came with her.

Link caved next, shucking his shirt over his head, and shedding his pants just as quickly, then jumped into the water with a running start.

Zelda, completely taken aback by the situation, could only yelp and skip out of the way of the splash Link made.

“It is actually quite nice, Princess,” Riju said, wringing her tied hair out where it was too long to keep out of the water.

“I-I am not sure this is wholly appropriate,” she stammered, looking away from the other three.

“No one has strange intentions here, right?” Sidon said, looking around for the approving nods of the half-naked Champion and the soaking adolescent. “Right! At least put your legs in the water and enjoy the steam, Your Highness.”

Zelda inched towards the spring, her body hot from embarrassment and from the high temperatures that the steam created. She shed her boots and stockings carefully, moving to an area where she had her own space and settled her bare calves into the water. Riju was right. This was very nice.

She sighed contentedly while the Zora hooted animatedly. Link chuckled, clapping his hands in agreement.

“How did you find this, fish boy?” Riju asked, finding a ledge high enough for her to be able to sit comfortably with her head out of the water.

“You have got to stop calling me that, and I was actually looking for something like this. I knew there were some hot spots since Death Mountain isn’t too far away, but I didn’t hope for much since we’re on the outskirts of the geysers around it.”

“I’ll stop calling you fish boy when you stop calling me small one,” Riju bit back.

“I did not realize Death Mountain’s grip reached this far,” Zelda mused, swinging her legs back and forth in the hot water.

“Me neither! But I absolutely just _had_ to go looking, y’know? And what a treasure I found!” The Zora said happily.

“Speaking of Death Mountain, Yunobo and Bludo were also invited, right?” Riju asked.

“I should hope so, or they are going to miss the meeting,” the Prince replied. “We got their letter of correspondence saying they were going to join us, though, so it would shock me if they didn’t. Besides, being built out of rock like that would make traveling a little easier, I would imagine.”

_It has been a very long time since I have seen Yunobo,_ Link signed.

“You saw him two years ago with me, remember?” Zelda said.

_Two years is a very long time,_ the Champion reasoned.

“One hundred years is also a long time,” Riju mumbled, and the blond froze.

Sidon snapped out of his cheerful demeanor to cast a warning glance towards the younger of the four, and she murmured an apology.

“Anyway,” Zelda said, breaking the tension before it had a chance to form, “I meant to ask you, Sidon. Have you any idea what the meeting is about?”

“You, if I understand correctly,” Sidon said, releasing his glare on the Gerudo girl across from him and closing his eyes again. 

The Princess was growing tired of hearing that answer. “Yes, but what _about_ me?”

“Oh, that I do not know,” Sidon chimed as if it had helped her.

Zelda groaned, allowing herself to fall backwards onto the soft grass behind her.

“Sorry, Princess. My father simply has a flare for the dramatics, you see. It’s where I get most of my charm,” he said, throwing a wink at her that she couldn’t see while she stared upwards.

_It is best not to worry about it until we have to,_ Link jumped in.

“Well said, Link,” Sidon praised, clapping the smaller Hylian on the back with a smack.

“What did he say?” Zelda asked.

“The same thing I told you,” Riju said for the first time in a minute or so. “That it isn’t an issue until it’s an issue.”

The Princess sighed. “I am growing to dread surprises nowadays…”

“Hey, who knows?” Sidon began. “It could be a really, really good thing.”

“He’s right,” Riju said, rolling her eyes when Sidon gasped. “Regrettably,” she added quickly.

“Like Link said,” Sidon repeated, “We need not worry yet. For now, let us enjoy this very, _very_ nice soak until we head back for the banquet.” The Zora settled farther into the water, resting his hands on the flat plains of his stomach.

“No offense to your chefs, but I think I would rather have something Link made,” Riju continued, bringing the Champion’s attention to her.

_If you are unsatisfied with the food, I would be happy to make something for you all,_ he signed.

“Oh, please. Nothing can be better than roast kumquats and salmon glazed with watergrass,” Sidon said matter of factly.

Both the girls’ heads whipped around towards the Zora with jaws agape. 

“Have you never had Link’s cooking?” Zelda cried, suddenly feeling rather defensive.

“No?” Sidon said tentatively, peeping open one of his yellow eyes.

“You’ll change your mind so quickly when you do that your small little brain might explode,” Riju jeered.

Sidon gasped with feigned offense. “How _dare_ you! The size of my brain has little to do with the functionality of my tastebuds!”

“Perhaps, then, they misinform you,” Zelda piped in, smirking slyly.

“Princess, not you too!” The Zora cried, betrayal shaking his voice.

“All things Link makes have made my mouth no less than water. Except for maybe the only food that, I am quite sure he makes on purpose by the way, is rather inedible in any way shape or form,” Riju said, leaning back. 

Zelda laughed, knowing exactly what she was talking about. “What do you call it again?” She asked the Champion who looked a little sheepish where he stood in the water.

_Dubious Food._ Link chuckled.

“That’s it!” Riju cried, making a face at the thought of it. 

“So what I am to understand is that everything Link prepares is either on-the-nose perfect in every way, or ‘dubious’ and inedible?” Sidon inquired doubtfully.

The other three simply nodded thoughtfully.

“Little hero, you are incredible in so many ways,” the Zora sang teasingly.

Link grinned devilishly, then leapt at Sidon who shrieked as he was pulled under the water. The two wrestled for a moment, and the girls blocked the splashes that careened towards them as their tussle continued.

“Goddesses, enough already!” Riju cried, trying desperately to wring the water from her hair only for it to be replaced moments later. 

Sidon popped up from the water, Link grappling him without force around his neck from behind. “Aw, has little miss Gerudo Chieftess gotten a little wet?” He mocked, sending a splash her way.

“I do not like being so soaked,” she whined. “We are a desert people, and the only time we submerge ourselves as such is when we bathe. And when we bathe we are most certainly not splashed.” She retaliated by sending her own wave his way.

He blinked before the water could hit his eyes, and Link used the opportunity to drive him back underwater. Naturally, the Zora only came right back up, this time holding the Champion by a leg and hanging him upside down.

“Unbelievable that such a little hero saved us all,” Sidon snickered.

Zelda let out her own series of giggles as Link grinned at her as his hair fell loose from his ponytail. The Champion was released, and he promptly landed back into the hot spring with a great splash. When he resurfaced, he spat some water in Sidon’s direction, but was dismayed by Zelda’s stern chastisement.

“We ought to head back soon. The Banquet will likely start within the next few hours,” Riju said.

“Seems I will have to wait another day to taste Link’s cooking,” the Prince lamented, his webbed hands lifting up to his chest with sorrow.

They all laughed, fishing themselves out of the hotspring and patting themselves dry. All except for Sidon, of course, who only shook himself out like a dog and slipped on the royal decoration he outfitted himself with.

The climb down the slope away from the springs was shorter and less grueling than going up, and incidentally took only about half the time. Sidon was the first to part ways when they reentered the main plaza of Zora’s Domain, skipping off towards where the rest could only assume was his personal chambers. The remaining three all made their way back to their temporary lodgings, waving Riju off as she turned right down a corridor towards a tall, spiraling staircase.

Link’s room was the farthest it seemed, even if it was just one door down from Zelda’s. But it was enough that he was left with a sudden, eerie quiet in the winding hall when the Princess slipped into her room and shut the door.

His door was heavy as he pushed on it, and he supposed it was that way as it had been built for much larger Zorans. It gave with a whine of its hinges, and he closed it behind him. The banquet had not been set for any particular time, but the four friends had agreed to meet up once again in the royal dining hall where the event would likely be hosted within two hours. Link glanced at the large clock that stood near the fireplace. The smaller hand pointed halfway past the five, and the larger just past the six. About 5:30.

He quickly shed his damp Champion’s tunic that clung to his skin as he had not been fully dried when he pulled it on himself after getting out of the warm waters of the spring. The rest of his clothes followed, and he shuffled towards the adjoining bathroom. 

It took him longer to bathe himself than he anticipated, trying his best to remove the grime and smell that stuck insistently to his skin from two days of travel without. Halfway through their journey, the same day they had stopped to “clean” the kitchen ware they had brought with them, most of the guardsmen had rinsed themselves off in the same pond, but it was nothing a proper bath could scrub away.

The soap was lavish and fancy, and Link felt a little bad when he picked it up with the same fingers that had dirt stuck underneath their nails. He ran it up and down his extremities, then lathered his hands to rub over his face. The bathwater was heated in wooden buckets by hot air blowing out of a grate in the corner of the washroom, and after generously coating himself in several layers of soap, he dumped one over his head, clenching his eyes shut as the water cascaded down his body.

When he left the washroom and glanced at the clock, he found that an entire hour and a half had passed. Surprised with how long he had spent in there, he glanced at his pruned fingers that he hadn’t noticed before. Shaking his head, he moved to the wardrobe and rifled through a few things before coming upon his only formal outfit: his Royal Guard Armor. 

The many layers and complexity of this particular set of clothing always irritated him, and he scowled as he began pulling everything on. Typically he could get away with foregoing such an outfit. Being the hero of Hyrule and the Princess’s personal guard had the stuffy uniform apparently waved, but with such an event at a political gathering, he figured now was the time to put in the effort. It must have been the gloves that frustrated him the most, or maybe the boots, actually, for how high they clung at his legs. For being soldier apparel, even if it was just formality, there was very little movement to be had in the confines of this dreadful outfit. The boots were faux leather, and the gloves were just a little too airy at the cuffs to sit correctly on the hands. The rest of the layers were okay, actually, and Link quite liked the dark blue and red color scheme it had. He especially liked the Hylian insignia on his chest and the matching accents on the fabric that fell from his sleeves to cover his shoulders and the cloth that hung over his thighs. He tied his hair quickly, secured the lumpy hat to his head, and the ensemble was complete.

Link pursed his lips when he spotted the Sheikah Slate laying on the bed next to the clothing he had on before swiping it up and grabbing his normal belt. It slid into place at his left hip as it always did. The slate was probably a little too valuable to leave behind. 

He exited the room fifteen minutes before he and Zelda were scheduled to meet up with the other two. Journeying to the Princess’s door, he took post just beside it and waited patiently for his charge to emerge. There was rustling beyond the door, but he tried not to listen too hard. However, when a frustrated sigh and more rustling, this time a little more violent, followed, he turned his attention to the door and knocked.

“Yes?” The Princess called from inside.

Link let out a breath through his nose. How was he supposed to call back? Instead, he just knocked a few more times.

“Oh, for- just come in!” The voice said from behind the door.

Link cautiously opened it, taking a few short steps into the threshold before stopping just short of a few steps away from where he entered. The room was just like his, only a little bigger and perhaps more decorated. It also smelled like the soap he had used, and the unique scent flooded over him.

“Oh, Link!” Zelda said, looking a little surprised to see him. “You look wonderful in that uniform.”

When the Champion turned his gaze to the Princess, it was all he could do to prevent his jaw from dropping. Her beauty was stunningly put on display in a pale green dress that famously complemented her eyes. It reached to just her ankles, but a large slit had been cut on her right side that ran all the way up to her midthigh. A semi-transparent and silky fabric hung over her shoulders lightly, and skin-tight cream gloves climbed up to her forearms. She had put earrings on, something Link had never seen her do, and they glittered when the light caught them just right as they hung just past her lobe. A thin chain attached them to a fashionable ear guarde that dangled just past the end of her ear. 

_You look beautiful,_ he signed quickly when he had stared just just a moment too long, feeling color race to his cheeks.

She chuckled breathing a thanks. She was bent slightly as she tugged at the straps of sandals that climbed up her legs. Zelda huffed, trying vainly again to weave the strap correctly behind her thigh, but she simply didn’t have the right angle on it.

_Are you having trouble, Princess?_ He signed, taking a few steps towards her and touching her on the shoulder to ensure she was looking at what he was saying.

The girl laughed, pulling again at the strap. “I should not have chosen to bring these,” she said. “They are much too difficult to manage.”

_Would you like some help?_ He asked.

It was her turn now to blush, but she knew it would be unlikely that she would be able to tie the sandal properly without someone’s assistance. “I… I would very much like that, if you would,” she mumbled, avoiding his eye.

Heat rushed through her as he knelt, brushing away the skirt of the long dress as he sat eye-level with the offending tie. When his fingers brushed against her skin she shivered, a burning trail left behind where he touched her. Nimbly, he worked what she had gotten done loose before redoing it easily, and the Princess’s face was about the same color as the red cloth of his Royal Guard Armor when he was finished. The fleeting feeling of his breath against her thigh left her a little cold, and she cleared her throat as he stood.

“Thank you,” she said, finally meeting his eye. He smirked, then leaned in. Her eyes drifted shut, but she was left confused when their lips never met. Instead, he ducked to the side, brushed her hair out of the way, and left an open-mouthed kiss against the column of her neck. She gasped, feeling a haze of arousal wash over her, and she stepped just a little closer into his embrace. 

But, as if her world was ending once again, he broke away and laid a quick peck on her forehead before signing, _We ought to get going, Princess._

He held out his arm, crooked at the elbow, and Zelda broke out of the haze she had fallen into, clearing her throat again and looping her own arm through his.

They walked arm in arm towards the plaza, and without knowing where to go Zelda allowed Link to pull her wherever the royal dining hall in Zora’s Domain was. He had mentioned that he ‘paid attention,’ but how was it he knew the layout of this place without having actually been in many of the rooms he had led them through?

Either way, it was a blessing that he possessed such a talent, and after making their way towards where Sidon had left to refresh himself before the banquet, they quickly ended up in a large room bustling with activity. Zorans of high status were everywhere, drinking and eating merrily. A small orchestra was in the corner playing a peppy tune on a lute and a few stringed instruments that the Hylians did not recognize. Palace workers rushed about with trays of food and vases of wine and ale, weaving their way through the many tables and seats.

Across the room was a stand-outish red Zoran and two women with red hair. Link pointed at their friends, and Zelda nodded eagerly, falling into his step as they carefully made their way towards them.

They passed four long tables, but as soon as they came within a few meters of the group, Sidon stood quickly. He was wearing a formal coat now with the Zoran insignia where his heart was, but his typical scarf that he wore around his neck had not gone anywhere.

“You two are late!” He cried as the Hylians came within the short distance of earshot. 

“Forgive us, we got carried away trying to scrub away everything we collected from our journey,” Zelda said, curtseying when she let go of Link’s arm.

“We saved you space,” Riju said, motioning next to her. 

To her left Buliara nodded respectfully at the two, and Link gave her a smile of acknowledgement. 

“Come, come, please eat!” Sidon said as the two took their seats. “Most of this is traditional Zoran cuisine, but we requested the chefs try their hand at recipes that come from your homes. I cannot guarantee that it will be right on the nose, but I am quite enjoying these little bread thingies.” They were rolls, and he popped one into his mouth to prove his point.

“Your father has truly outdone himself,” Zelda complimented as Link began fixing a plate for her on her right.

“If there’s one thing my father loves more than a little suspense, it is good food!” The Zora said. “But do not forget to thank me, for it was I who organized this.”

The others went bug-eyed. “He let you have responsibility of something?” Riju asked incredulously.

Sidon scowled. “I may seem like some care-free Prince, but I do have responsibilities, thank you!” 

“But it was your father who told us this banquet was to be held,” Zelda said curiously, gratefully taking the carefully assorted plate of food that the Champion had put together for her.

“Oh, boo. I knew that at least some of the races would show up a day early, even if it wasn’t intentional. So when Riju arrived this morning I did my best to throw this together as quickly as I could, and voila.” Sidon gestured around the room. “I believe I have done well, no?”

The others laughed. “You have done well, Sidon, yes,” Riju affirmed, taking a bite out of her Salmon Meuniere. 

“I am glad then that the fruits of my efforts are being enjoyed.”

The group continued to chatter while they ate, and Sidon called over a kitchen girl and requested that she bring some wine which she scurried back with a minute or so later. Zelda’s cup was full, but she knew she wouldn’t be drinking all of it. Link pushed back only half of his own, Riju two cups of hers, and Sidon the one. Buliara refused her drink in the interest of keeping an eye out, even at the Zoran Prince’s insistence that this was a time of celebration.

They all ate happily, Zelda and Riju picking through a plate or two before moving away from their meal. Link, Sidon, and Buliara, who must have each finished at least three entrees each before finally stopping, poking fun at each other’s stomach elasticity. Zelda picked off of Link’s seafood fried rice, stabbing the porgy and bringing it to her mouth as if she were being sneaky about it. But Link was more than happy to share with her, ensuring that there was enough snail for her to grab on the side of the plate closest to her while he instead ate the rice.

Sidon asked the Champion if he had not liked porgy when he noticed him moving the fish and snail to the Princess’s side of the plate for her to steal off of, but he quickly shook his head and reassured him that he was very much enjoying the meal, taking a bite of both the fish and rice to satisfy the Prince. Because it wasn’t that he didn’t like its taste, just that he was amused by watching the Princess pretend to be stealthy about stealing his food. In the end, after she had eaten most of what she was taking and Link had cleaned off the rice, he grabbed another plate, and found disappointedly that her hunger had finally been sated as she stopped stealing the snail.

For two hours they all talked amongst themselves, catching up on stories that the others had missed. Riju and Sidon both threw back two other drinks, and both had a deep flush to their faces by the time it was time to leave the banquet. Sidon seemed less affected by the alcohol, as he was much larger. Riju, however, was having difficulty walking in a straight line, and Buliara steadied her Chieftess as she walked the adolescent out of the dining hall. Sidon bid Link and the Princess goodnight as the festivities began to die down, and the two were left alone in the plaza the next moment.

Even though she had only had about a quarter of her drink, the Princess’s alcohol resistance must have been much feebler than she originally thought because she felt a pleasant buzz wash over her as she stood.

_I am surprised we did not see Hoz,_ Link signed as they walked out, holding the Princess again with their locked arms.

“I am sure he will arrive tomorrow along with everyone else,” Zelda reassured him as he led them back towards their rooms. “Did you see the rest of the guardsmen?”

_They were at a far table in the corner. They were still there when we left._

Zelda hummed. “I am sorry for stealing all your porgy.”

Link only chuckled. _I am happy to share with you anytime, Princess._

He escorted her down the long hall, to the right at the fork in the hallways, and back to the door of her chambers where he paused briefly when she did not let go of his arm.

“You could stay, you know?” She offered quietly, her eyes looking down.

Link’s widened, shocked at her sudden invitation. But instead of agreeing to it like he so desperately wanted to, he only cast his eyes down as well, lifting to sign, _It is unwise, Princess._

Zelda let out a breath of disappointment, hurt clawing up her throat. She did not let this show, though, and she faked a warm smile that felt most natural forcing. “Then goodnight, Link,” she breathed before leaning in and pressing a quick kiss against his lips. 

He retaliated immediately, responding as eagerly as she had hoped he would. One of his gloved white hands fisted into her hair and his tongue slipped into her mouth. She was pushed back against her door, and she hit softly as she opened her legs slightly. The Champion fitted himself in her space, pressing against her body with his own. When they separated, they breathed harshly, but before Zelda could rush back in, Link pulled away, the back of his hand hiding the redness of his cheeks, but not the dusting on the tips of his ears.

_Goodnight, Princess,_ he quickly signed, then made large, awkward strides towards his chambers just twenty or so meters down the hall. Zelda giggled softly at his response, feeling hot and heavy after what had just happened.

She turned and opened her door, clumsily pulling at the fabrics that hung off her skin. Even if the buzz from the alcohol was slight, it was enough that when she rid herself of the silks from her body it felt like she had removed a hundred pounds. Her sandals were removed next, the tie coming easily undone and unraveling over her thigh and calf until she could step out of the shoe. Her earrings followed suit quickly, and she gingerly laid them on the curiously mirror-less vanity. All that she was left in now was her undergarments, and she reveled in the feeling as her body hit the soft furs and silky sheets of the bed.

Zelda found herself wondering what Link was up to, even if she had just seen him minutes ago. Had he changed into his sleepwear? Was he swinging that sword around in his bedroom to make up for training that he hadn’t had the chance to complete today? Was he foregoing that practice to instead crawl beneath the sheets of his own bed?

As questions ran through her mind, the Princess’s eyelids began to feel heavy, and she finally changed into her nightgown before finding herself in the bed’s sheets again. She laid a head down on the plush, unfamiliar pillow, and allowed her eyes to close. 

It wasn’t long before unconsciousness gripped her, and she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always imagined Sidon and Riju as two who would get along. In the game, Riju never really got to act her age, so I would hope that in the presence of someone as goofy as Sidon she would be able to relax a little. Sidon seems a little out of character the way I write him, though, no matter how many times I rewrite his dialogue. I just don't know as many flowery words as he uses ingame to keep up.


	6. The Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which my feeble attempts at writing politics is put on display.

The Princess woke with a sharp gasp, a droplet of sweat rolling down her back. She wiped the perspiration from her face with the back of her equally damp hand, and leapt out of her bed to grab a soft towel from within her adjoined washroom. 

Patting herself down, Zelda clenched her jaw as she recalled her nightmare. It was the same one as always.

They would be running from the Guardians, Link would be blasted, she would deactivate the machines with a blinding light from her palm, and her guard would then die in her arms. It tormented her once every month now, but she supposed she ought to be grateful it wasn’t every night like it had been for an insurmountable amount of time two years ago. But she knew it wasn’t the fact that Link had sacrificed himself for her that tortured her so, but instead that if she had tried to kill the Guardians just a few moments earlier before Link had been shot with one of their heat blasts, perhaps he might not have died that day.

Zelda’s hands curled into fists as she willed the images away, focusing instead on the cool air of the night that licked at her damp skin, and the way she forced her breathing to slow into controlled breaths, even draws and exhales of air. She looked at the clock across the room, and it read 12:47. She had barely been asleep for two hours.

The Princess tried her best to crawl back into bed and shut her eyes, but images of her dying guard were plastered against the inside of her eyelids. The girl laid there for about ten minutes, willing herself to find peace again, but as the minutes ticked by she eventually stopped.

She crossed the room quickly, pulling at the handle of her door as it creaked open quietly. Zelda looked both ways, but she really didn’t expect anyone to be walking the Palace corridors this late anyway. The coast was clear, and she skipped to the right towards the Champion’s silent room. She knocked softly, her heart beating wildly against her chest. 

There was a soft rustle, then the quiet sound of feet crossing wood flooring that could barely be heard.

“It’s me,” she said softly when they stopped just at the other side of the door. 

It opened slightly, and her eyes met Link’s tired expression. His hair was down, and he rubbed at his right eye with the back of his hand. The Champion was shirtless, but loose and soft-looking trousers hugged his waist. _Are you okay?_ He signed.

Zelda stepped into his room without giving an answer, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a hug. Stunned, he shoved the door closed and reciprocated, fitting his head against the side of hers and pulling her against him.

“I am now,” she breathed quietly, squeezing him.

The boy separated enough that she might see his hands. _Another nightmare?_

The Princess nodded, a pitiful expression souring her pretty features.

_Do you want to talk about it?_

Zelda shook her head. “But I think it would help if I stayed here with you. I just want to sleep.”

The Champion nodded, then took her wrist gently to lead her back to his bed. She crawled up onto the mattress, and the guard followed just behind her. Curled into a ball, she rolled to face him as he slid onto his side next to her.

“Your hair is getting long,” she mumbled softly, reaching her free right hand to grab at one of the soft dirty blond locks.

 _You think so?_ He reached up to grab a few strands and see the length for himself.

“I can cut it for you if you like.”

 _Maybe in the morning._ Link smiled gently, taking her hand into his and lacing their fingers. He placed a kiss on the back of her hand, and she laughed softly.

“I have been thinking about cutting my own hair recently.”

_Oh?_

“To my shoulders, or a little shorter maybe,” The Princess continued. “I like the length I have now, but it’s too much trouble to manage when it gets tangled.”

_I will always brush it for you, if it becomes too much trouble._

“Do you like its length as it is now, then?” She asked, ready to reconsider her plan to cut it.

_I like your hair however you like it, Zelda._

She felt love bubble inside of her, and she melted into his words. “We could cut each other’s then,” Zelda suggested.

 _I like that plan,_ Link signed, reaching up to fiddle with a strand that fell into her face. The Princess huffed. That strand had been getting annoying recently.

After a beat of silence she shifted closer, and the Champion made room for her as Zelda burrowed under his chin and rested her head against his chest. Link’s lips curled upwards, shifting to a more comfortable position to allow her to lay there, and he draped his left hand over her back where he began to run soothing fingers up and down the column of her spine.

She hummed softly, snuggling further into his embrace, forgetting the scars across his chest and collarbone in favor of savoring how she no longer saw her partner dead in her arms when her eyes closed. The feeling of his heart beating against his chest that she could feel against her head was just a little faster than normal, and she smiled proudly at the knowledge that she had this effect on him. She was sure that if he could feel her pulse against her back, he would find the same heightened pace.

Link sighed contentedly, tucking his jaw for a moment to lay a kiss on the top of her head. At the movement, Zelda pulled back and met his eyes. In their blue depths there was kindness and love staring back at her, and she hoped hers reflected the same. She shifted upwards and caught his lips briefly. The hand that was running up and down the length of her back shifted instead to cup her face gently in its rough palms, and she was lulled into another kiss of his own. There was a fire where their lips touched, and Zelda’s hands splayed against her guard’s bare chest.

Link breathed in the addicting smell of the Princess’s skin, a scent of honeycomb and wildflowers that invaded his senses and overwhelmed his mind. The only thing that kept him grounded was the feeling of her soft hair between his fingers and the vice of her touch against his sternum.

Zelda broke apart first this time, and the Princess’s breath fanned across the Champion’s face. “I am sorry, these were not my original intentions,” she breathed, and Link felt his heart constrict tightly.

 _We do not have to continue,_ the hero signed.

“But Link,” she started, leveraging herself upwards and hooking her leg around his as she pulled herself up to straddle him. She leaned down, right next to his ear. “I really, _really_ want to.”

Arousal surged through his system and Link launched himself upwards, attacking her lips with his own in a burst of energy. The Princess hurriedly shed the nightgown she wore as his hands attached themselves to her lower back just above the hem of her underwear. Her nails dug into his chest, careful to avoid the scar that cut across the length of it as Link’s tongue slid against her own.

She shuddered as he gripped her hips, shifting her pelvis against the growing tent in his pants. He groaned lowly, and she held back the smile she felt curling her lips. She repeated the motion, hoping to extract more of the same reaction, but she was stunted in her advances as his hands scraped up her sides and filled his palms with her breasts. He squeezed gently, and Zelda gasped, arching into his hold. Link’s mouth detached from hers, moving instead down the column of her throat and nipping gently until he got to a point where he knew he could bite without risking it being seen.

The Princess felt like puddy in his ministrations, her mind so clouded with arousal she had forgotten her original goal, more than happy to let him take the lead. 

And Link was surely taking it. His right hand, still occupied with the fleshy globes at her chest, tweaked a pink nipple while his other found itself tugging at the hem of her underwear, carefully dragging it down to her knees. The Princess struggled awkwardly to pick her legs out of the offending cloth, shaking the pesky panties off her right ankle and resuming her place straddling the Champion’s hips.

Link’s hand buried itself into soft lower curls, and without the timid exploration of their first time plunged his index into her. Zelda keened, but was quickly silenced by lips that reclaimed hers. Any high pitched noise that she was making now was swallowed by the boy below her as he crooked his finger and dragged the rough pad against her sensitive inner walls.

Little explosions of pleasure coiled within her, and after she had demanded a second, then a third finger, she was trembling under his touch. She wasn’t sure just how thin the walls were, but it wouldn’t make much sense if these rooms, dubbed fit for royal guests, were thin enough to allow such sounds to be heard through them. However, the doors sure were. So Zelda held back as best as she could as he pulled at the delicate peaks of her chest and callous fingers drew back within her sex.

When Link suddenly withdrew his fingers, now wet with her arousal, and flipped them over, the Princess nearly whined. His eyes were darker than normal, their typical stunning blue hazed over with a primal lust that made her feel much like a rabbit in a wolf’s gaze. His hair fell over his shoulders, and it tickled her when it touched her neck and collarbones as he lowered himself slowly. 

There was a sharp stab of pleasure that raced down her spine and to her toes which curled at the sensation when his manhood rubbed against her heat. Link’s head ducked down to bury itself into her shoulder, stifling the grunt he let out into her sweaty skin. Zelda’s arms circled around his neck, gasping into his ear with every slide of his hips as he coated herself in her juices. There was a slick sound every time he slid forward, and a choked noise would leave his throat each time. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity waiting for him to enter her, anticipation growing with every forward thrust of his hips only for him to slide over the sensitive bundle of nerves and send shockwaves through her body, he lined himself up with her properly and began his descent inside of her.

Zelda moaned sweetly into his ear as he slowly but surely made way within her. Above her, the Champion trembled with what she could only guess was self restraint. After all, the only thing stopping him from sheathing himself fully within her in one fell swoop was his own sheer willpower alone, and for caring about her so much even when he was as overwhelmed as he was now, she was grateful.

Link released a long groan into the pillow beside her when he finally bottomed out, and Zelda found herself drowning in the feeling of fullness, reveling in it as she did not know when they might have a chance to do this again. The Princess clung to him tightly, raking her nails anew down his shoulder blades and stuttering out a whimper as he withdrew halfway and rolled his hips forward home again.

The girl keened when he sat up slightly to lean forward and attach himself to her throat - a place he seemed most appreciative of in their intimate activities - and fist his hands into her chest again. Alight with new nerve endings that fired off throughout her body, the Princess’s toes curled and she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist.

Link growled as she did this, sending a sharp thrust forward. Zelda suddenly couldn’t catch her breath as his pace increased, Link’s breath coming out in harder and harder puffs of air hotly against her collarbone. The Princess could do little more than moan his name, keeping her voice down as much as she could as he was assaulted with every piston of his hips.

When he shifted ever so slightly Zelda saw stars, the angle causing him to stab at a certain place within her that stole her breath. 

“T-there!” She gasped, her head falling backwards as her nails sunk into his back. Link grunted in response, clenching his jaw, furrowing his brows as he continued.

The only sounds in their little bubble was the sound of their labored breathing, their moans, and the harsh slap of skin on skin as Zelda began meeting his thrusts as best as she could. The best must have been secured to the floor because the frame never jostled, even as the mattress and pillows rocked with their frantic pace.

Seemingly without warning, the Princess moaned her guard’s name out, only for it to be swallowed by him as he kissed her passionately, as the tension in her belly finally sprung. Her inner walls clamped down onto the Champion’s girth, and Link allowed his own long-winded moan to be muffled by his charge’s lips as he slipped out of her shakily and came onto her abdomen. Zelda shook with her orgasm, even as the Champion pulled out, and could only cling to him as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her. Her eyes shut and her head fell back, their lips detaching as she rode out the final shockwaves. Above her, Link all but collapsed on top of her, and she huffed under the feeling of his weight pinning her to the bed.

She didn’t mind, though. She didn’t mind at all, actually. There was something calming about this post-coital bliss that she found with all of his weight over her; something particularly grounding about the feeling of him physically holding her down. It helped her mind clear the cobwebs of arousal as she focused on her breathing.

Link finally rolled off of the Princess, his shoulders moving with each of his heaves before he swung himself onto unsteady legs and disappeared into the washroom. Zelda watched her, sitting up herself. Immediately she regretted it, feeling gross and a little sticky now that the moment was over. His cum, which sat hotly on her abdomen had chilled now, and it made her shiver. The fluid from her own orgasm trickled down her thighs, and she realized now that she had sweat covering her entire body.

But most of all, she felt exhausted. More exhausted than she had in a very long time. Whether it was from her lack of sleep, the aerobics she and Link had just done, or just the mental taxation she faced by the pressure and suspense of tomorrow’s meeting, she didn’t know. Whatever it was, it was all momentarily cast away when the Champion reemerged from the adjoining bathroom with a hot towel in his hand just a few short moments after he had left. Gently, he began wiping her down, apologizing for dirtying her in such a way as he swiped away his cum from her milky stomach.

She had only giggled, leaning into his affection as he used the clean side of the towel to carefully scrub away the layer of sweat on her skin, pausing to leave another kiss next to the hickey she hadn’t felt him make on her shoulder. The weight of his actions always sat deeply with the Princess. As Link never used his voice, it was always thrilling to hear him use it, but actions spoke much louder than words for him. And oftentimes they meant more than he could have expressed even if he did speak. Like now, as he cleaned her off with such attention and love, focus and admiration in his eyes, Zelda couldn’t help but feel like she was the luckiest woman alive.

When he deemed her clean enough to his standards, he ensured she was comfortable before rushing off to clean himself off in the washroom, and returned two minutes later. He leapt onto the bed, crawling over her until he loomed over her head and she was forced to sit back in order to make room for her guard. He smiled wolfishly, placing a lingering kiss on her lips before curling her into his arms and settling them both back into the bed where their heads rested against the soft, plush pillows. 

Again, he interlocked their fingers, lifting the back of her hand to his lips. He made direct eye contact with her as he placed one last kiss to her knuckles.

“You spoil me,” she breathed, using her free hand tucked under her body to reach out and brush hair from out of his eyes.

 _You are worth spoiling, Princess,_ he gestured, and Zelda felt butterflies flutter within her stomach.

“Thank you,” The Princess whispered, her eyes softening as if exposing her soul to him so he could see just how much she meant it.

Link returned her gaze just as fiercely, releasing her hand momentarily and pulling her closer to him. _Good night, Zelda._

The girl could not remember when she had closed her eyes, but she did know that it must have been very soon after he had signed those last words to her. She had thought that she had only blinked, but as she found herself fighting her eyelids to open, she squinted at the clock nearby which read 6:17.

In front of her, Link slept soundly, as he always did, and she smiled at his peaceful expression and the way his mouth was slightly open on the pillow. Normally she would think it gross if she ever caught anyone drooling, but because Link was on his own pillow and far enough away from her face to be a threat, she colored it rather endearing. His breathing was even, and his eyelid fluttered just slightly every few seconds, and Zelda found herself wondering what exactly he was dreaming about. He didn’t appear to be in distress, so she hoped it was something happy. 

Goddesses knew this boy deserved it.

She found herself momentarily envying how soundly he slept, recalling her nightmare that had lured her to his chambers in the first place sourly. Zelda had not had a pleasant dream since she was a girl. It was either a vicious night terror like the one she had the night before and the one she woke up from in the cave, or dreamless sleep that she woke from feeling even more tired than before.

The last happy dream she had, she recalled vaguely, had something to do with a sweet that she had stolen from the castle’s kitchen as a girl. The details were fuzzy, but she remembered the satisfaction as the pastry had fallen into her small hands. She laughed softly to herself with melancholy. What a simple life she lived before her father had enforced the necessity of gaining and controlling her powers on her.

Though, oddly, she never resented him for it. It was a strange thought that Zelda often mused. No one would think ill of her if she were to hate her father for how she was treated, but she could never bring herself to. She knew that she probably should. After all, he had punished her for enjoying activities that had nothing to do with her destiny, he had placed Link, a living reminder of her failures, under her even before he was her appointed knight, and he had crushed any sense of self that she had grabbed onto as she grew. And yet, she could not hate him.

Zelda watched the boy in front of her doze for another twenty-ish minutes before he began to stir. Link’s eyes clenched for a moment, and he lifted the hand he had at her waist up to his mouth to stifle a yawn and wipe the drool from his chin. He scrubbed his eyes before cracking them open, taking in the contented face beside him. A dopey grin split across his features, and Zelda felt happiness bubble in her stomach as a blush dusted her cheeks.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she whispered, allowing him to bring himself to full consciousness as he stretched his arms forward.

 _Fancy meeting you here,_ he signed, and the Princess couldn’t help but giggle. _How long have we been asleep?_

“You’ve slept for another hundred years, actually,” Zelda teased.

Link’s eyes settled on her heavily as he chuckled dryly. _That’s not funny._

She pursed her lips, glancing to the side. “It’s a _little_ funny.”

 _Five more minutes,_ he gestured, flopping back into the sheets.

“But you’ve slept for another hundred years!” She gasped, poking him in the side.

_Fine, two more minutes._

“Oh, you! Come on, we should get up before anyone notices I’ve gone missing.”

Link groaned into the pillow with protest, looping his arms around her middle as she tried to get up.

“Link, do not be a child,” Zelda laughed, prying herself easily from his grasp. She knew he would never restrain her like that anyway. 

_I am 119 years old,_ he signed, his hands in the air. _I am no child._

“I’ve forgotten, as you seem to represent yourself as only a toddler,” she swatted at his leg gently, and he grunted as he began pulling himself up on strong biceps as if it was the hardest task in the world.

The Princess stood with shaky legs before regaining her balance and swiping clothing up from the pile on the floor. She tossed him his underwear, which she was genuinely impressed by when he caught them without even seeing her throw them. She slipped into her underwear and dragged the nightgown over her head.

As she passed his vanity, she spotted a pair of scissors on the corner of its surface. Zelda gasped, bringing his attention to her as she held them up. “When I come back in here in appropriate clothes for us to be seen together in, your hair will be cut,” she said matter-of-factly. Link had just begun pulling his hair back like he normally did, the short ribbon hanging from his mouth.

He nodded dumbly, staring at her with a sort of reverence in his blue eyes before she giggled and turned towards the door. He stopped her suddenly on the shoulder.

 _Let me make sure it is clear,_ he signed. The Princess had forgotten for a second that there was danger present in the knowledge that the royalty of Hyrule had been spending nights with her appointed knight, and she bobbed her head in response, stepping around the corner just in case.

Link opened the large wooden door, peeked out, then motioned with his hand that it was clear for her to go. She scurried out into the open hall, chillier than she remembered it as the cool air hit her bare legs, and she safely ducked into her room. 

There, she quickly changed into her normal outfit, figuring that she didn’t need to wear any fancy dress the whole day when she could just change later for the meeting. Zelda blushes as the fabric brushed over the sensitive areas of skin where Link had marked her, the skin slightly reddened. Thankfully he hadn’t left anywhere they could be seen, and she felt a pang of disappointment when she remembered why he hadn’t. 

She shook off these feelings quickly, reminding herself that there was no reason to feel like what they had wasn’t in any immediate jeopardy. So, as soon as she had pulled her final layers of clothes on, she scampered back out into the hallway. Link’s doorway was ajar, and he was fixing his gauntlets over his favorite grey gloves. 

He spotted her before she pushed the door open, smiling at her excitedly. It made her heart flutter, finding his puppy-like adoration incredibly endearing. Zelda returned his grin, but made her way straight to the vanity, snatching the scissors up and spinning around with a smirk on her face. The Champion snickered, then raced into the washroom to grab a towel. When he returned, he laid it out on the floor. 

_Want to go first?_ He signed, gesturing to the towel. 

“I think I’ll keep mine long until our return to the castle,” Zelda said. “Besides, it would be strange for everyone to see me with long hair one day and short the next.”

Link shrugged, then sat himself in front of the towel with his back to her. He tucked in his legs in a way that reminded the Princess of a toddler, crossing them like a school child. She shuffled over before kneeling behind him, adjusting the cold meta of the scissors properly in her fingers. He had left his hair down, and it fell just halfway down his shoulder blades. 

“How much shorter?” She asked him, taking a lock into her hand. 

Again, the boy shrugged. _A few centimetres?_

Zelda sighed. That wasn’t much to go on. But what was she to do? 

So without much thought, she began cutting. She left it long enough that he might still be able to pull it back into his normal ponytail without difficulty, but relieved him of his frayed ends and shaggy look. As she swept his hair to the side, she blushed as she met the nape of his neck, and paused perhaps a moment too long to admire the cords of muscle and the bony bump at the base of it where his spine began. 

She cleared her throat, then continued, focusing instead on the metallic snipping sound of the scissors as they cut the wild animal away from the royal knight in front of her. 

The Princess continued like this for several minutes, then after much scrutiny decided she was satisfied with her work. When she finished, Link shook his head out, then reached up to pull at a few strands. He bent backwards, looking at her upside down as he flashed a toothy smile at her. He didn’t need to sign to tell her thank you. 

“Now you look less like a beast,” she teased, flicking him on the forehead. “You would do well to act like less of one.”

Link’s smile faded into a scowl, but at this angle he looked more like a pouting child. The Princess poked at his cheek affectionately. “And,” she added, “this cut was not free.”

He arched a brow at her. 

“No more calling me Princess, or Your Highness. I think we have well progressed past the point where you ought to be addressing me by my given name.”

Link had made a special sign for her name ages ago, but it was rare that he used it. Zelda didn’t know how many people Link actually conversed with in sign language, but she was sure it couldn’t be too large a number. After all, knowing sign language was something typical of royalty, and was not often seen in commoners. Of course there were always exceptions, such as the kitchen girl, the Hyrule Castle chef, and a few of Link’s close friends from the guard, but the average citizen was only familiar with their mother tongue and Hylian. 

Because of this, Link would usually only speak to Zelda or with a group that included her, and seeing as though he could simply look at who he was addressing, there was little need for him to use the special sign. But he had made this when they were still children, and it meant a lot to her in the few times where Link really did use the hand gesture. 

_Are you sure?_ He signed tentatively. 

“Quite,” the Princess replied. 

Then I will do as you ask, Zelda.

She smiled, feeling affection fuzz her mind. She quickly laid a kiss on his nose, at which Link scrunched his face up at. 

Distantly, there was a ruckus being kicked up. There was laughter and talking, and the Princess sighed. 

“Five…” She began her countdown. 

There was a girly yelp, and Link pulled forward to quickly tie his hair up. 

“Four…”

One of them must have pushed the other because there was a muted thump against the wall in front of them. The two shared an amused grin. 

“Three…”

The sound of Zelda’s chamber doors being pulled open with a cheerful holler, only to be met with silence. 

“Two…”

The door was pulled closed, and the noisy people clambered down the small space between the two doors. 

“One.” Zelda breathes or the last number as Link’s door was kicked open. Sidon and Riju pushed past the solid oak barrier with ease. “Good morning!” They called in unison. 

“Good morning,” Zelda smiled warmly, and Link lifted a hand to wave. 

“Kaneli and Reede arrived late last night. Teba and his family have also come along as guards, it seems,” Sidon said, offering a hand or to Link who took it and was all but launched to his feet. 

“I am glad they have made the journey safely,” the Princess said cheerfully. 

“And just what were you two doing in here on your own?” Riju jabbed, a jeering and smug grin on her face. 

“Link asked that I cut his hair,” Zelda said honestly, but she didn’t miss the knowing smirk on the young girl’s face. 

“Forget the boring stuff, let’s go already! I haven’t seen Tulin in over a year - I wanna see how the little guy’s grown!” Sidon gushed, waving an encouraging hand towards the door and beaming sharp teeth. 

“Slow down, Sidon,” Riju complained as the group began making its way out of the sleeping quarters. Link dusted himself off, marveling at how hair no longer stalled in his face when his head shook.

Zelda chuckled, skipping after the exuberant Zora as he marched them all out of the lodgings and into the hallway. 

“I hope he doesn’t know how to fly yet. Do you think he knows how to fly? He didn’t last time I saw him, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t learnt. Goddesses, what if he just started?” Sidon gushed.

“He will be turning eight this year, will he not? Surely he knows how to fly by now,” the Princess reasoned.

“She’s right,” Riju affirmed. “And I am sure that Teba has started his training already if he wishes to raise the child to be at Revali’s level of skill.”

“Oh, come on! I can have hope, right?” The Prince moped for a moment before perking back up. “Perhaps I could teach him to swim!”

“And soil his flying feathers? I think not,” Zelda laughed lightly.

“Saki will hopefully be able to reason him out of that one,” Riju whispered slyly, an amused expression on her face.

“Link, Little Hylian, come now, back me up!” Sidon whined.

 _I have to agree with the others,_ the Champion signed now that the group was looking at him. _If it is true that he can or is learning to fly now, it is best not to risk his flying feathers by getting them wet._

“It’s impossible not to get a _little_ wet in Zora’s Domain. There’s water everywhere!”

“Sidon, see reason. They are a sky people. It’s best not to jeopardize the child’s wellbeing for the sake of a little of your own fun,” Riju scolded as the group exited the lodging area and into the main plaza.

“Speaking of fun, has there been word from Bludo?” Zelda inquired. 

“What a funny thing to relate Bludo to,” the Zoran Prince mumbled. “But no, to answer your question. However, I am sure they will arrive in a timely manner.”

“It seems as if you are in a rush, Princess,” Riju said.

“I simply want to see if anyone has any hunches on what the meeting’s about,” the Princess sighed.

 _Like we said yesterday,_ Link gestured, _it’s best you not worry about it until the time comes._

“What he said,” Sidon piped up.

“Where exactly are we going, by the way?” Riju asked. “We just left the sleeping quarters that I assume you throw most of your guests in, so where exactly are Kaneli and his guards staying?”

“It was strange, actually. When they arrived, they insisted they stay near the peaks around Vah Ruta. They said it wasn’t for lack of trust, but comfort instead,” Sidon explained.

“Not strange at all, then. They are an aerial race, after all,” Zelda said.

“What _is_ strange is that the chief allowed Teba to bring his family,” Riju began, tapping her chin with her index finger.

“Maybe not _strange,_ but certainly unusual,” Sidon agreed, matching her pensive look. “But, as you Hylians say, I will not look this gift horse in the mouth. I’m just glad I’ll be able to see Tulin again.”

The others chuckled, following the Prince as he led them towards the side path that curled around Vah Ruta. The dormant Divine Beast had been blue the past year, and apparently a few people had been fiddling with it as they tried to get it to work again. The Princess and her knight had heard about this in a report, and coincidentally the other races to whom the Divine Beasts belonged to were doing the same on a slightly lesser scale. In a letter sent about six months ago, Yunobo had written that he had managed to make Vah Rudania open its mouth slightly, which had caused quite a scare as the last time it had done that, it had unleashed a hellish ray upon Hyrule Castle that had hacked away at Ganon before he was defeated. That had led to the Princess wondering if blood relations to the Champions had anything to do with who would be able to function such machines, but no success had been reported since. 

“Speaking of Vah Ruta, have you tried piloting the Divine Beast since Ganon’s defeat?” Zelda questioned as they came into few of the submerged mechanical elephant. 

“Me?” Sidon asked, and the Princess nodded. “I remember stepping inside of it after you had sent the findings from Death Mountain that Yunobo had reported, but… I am embarrassed to say that I truly couldn’t bring myself to go any further than the entrance.” The Prince scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Zelda understood. It was his sister who was destined to pilot the Divine Beast, and only she had been capable of it at the time. She couldn’t imagine what horrible memories were dug up whenever the Prince laid eyes upon it.

“What about you, Riju?” Zelda asks.

“Vah Naboris has not let anyone inside of it, interestingly enough,” Riju sighed. “After Ganon’s defeat, its lights dimmed and its doors closed. That in no way changed when I approached it.”

The Princess hummed. “Well, there is always more we can do to find out why it has shut everyone else out.”

“That might be difficult, seeing as the Yiga have begun remaking themselves,” the young girl said.

 _I thought they dispersed after I handled Master Kohga?_ Link signed after gaining her attention with a tap on the shoulder.

“They did for awhile, but recently they have been causing issues with the locals in Gerudo Town. Petty theft, mostly, but two or three were captured by a few of my warriors who claimed to be a part of a revitalised group calling themselves the Yiga. After a little encouragement, they told us that they were reassembling, and already are in large number. Since then, we’ve been fending off cocky loose cananos for the past several months. Until that is solved, Vah Naboris will have to wait.”

“You should have said something! We could have sent support,” Zelda said, hurt evident on her face.

“Princess, with all respect, if we could not fight off a few nobodies from a ragtag group such as them, we would not be able to call ourselves Gerudo,” Riju said confidently with a smirk.

“Well, if you ever need our assistance, we would be happy to do so. You only need say the word,” the Princess said earnestly.

“Always, Your Highness.”

The conversation died quietly as they began scaling the peaks around the Divine Beast. It wasn’t long before the sounds of the Rito’s camp could be heard. It was also evident in the amount of feathers on the path they took, which all but covered the ground they walked on. The first group of Rito that they ran into were a few guards who seemed to recognize Link, and gave him a thumbs up as the group passed.

“You lookin’ for Teba?” One of them asked, his feathers darkened from the shadow that the cliffside cast onto them. 

The Champion nodded eagerly, then pointed up the path with a questioning look.

“Yep! Saki’s with ‘im too, so watch out!” The guard snickered, and Link smiled sympathetically.

 _Let’s go,_ he signed to his little group, and they continued their journey up the path.

It happened to be the third smaller encampment that housed the white Rito and his family. Both Teba and Saki were sipping mugs of a deep orange drink, but Tulin was nowhere in sight. As they approached them, Teba lifted his sights, and his eyes softened with friendly recognition as he was met with Link’s familiar face.

“Good to see you again,” Teba said, standing when the Champion was close enough to knock elbows with the boy. 

Link nodded eagerly.

“To you all as well,” the warrior added quickly, bowing quickly in the presence of three of the major leaders of the province. 

“Hey, no need for that! We’re all friends here!” Sidon said, slapping the Rito on the back which seemed rather unwelcome to the feathered man. 

“Forgive my husband’s stiff nature. You see, he’s in job-mode right now,” Saki chimed in, standing to give a swift bow to the others. 

Zelda stepped forward, and was accepted into the woman’s embrace kindly. The Princess had never truly had a mother figure, but after meeting and growing close with this family as they had had a huge part in the rebuilding of Hyrule Castle and Castle Town, she had grown rather close and rather fond of Saki. Having a mother figure, even if she was as far away from the castle as Hebra, was something she would never take advantage of, and found herself melting into the soft feathers of the other.

“My, you have grown, darling,” Saki crowed, brushing her wing down Zelda’s hair. “Into such a strong, beautiful woman no less.”

“Thank you,” the Princess gushed, blushing.

“Ah, Link,” Teba started, turning back towards the Hylian who met his gaze. “Tulin has been looking for you, but we weren’t sure you were here. Now that we know, keep an eye out for him. He’s taken to the skies now, and goddesses only know where he might dart out from.” His warning was given with a tired expression, and Saki giggled to his side. 

“Aw, so he has learnt to fly?” Sidon cried, anguish in his eyes. 

“He has,” Saki confirmed, smiling at the Zoran Prince. 

“Told you so,” Riju jabbed, earning a sneer of sharp teeth. 

“And I was going to teach him how to swim and everything…” Sidon pouted dramatically.

“Getting flying feathers wet is not a wise idea,” Teba warned hastily. “Without drying properly it can cause issues.”

“And again,” Riju laughed while the others joined in. Sidon slumped, disappointment evident.

Suddenly, there was a slight whistling. Everyone frowned, turning their heads to figure out where the sound was coming from. Only Teba and Saki had the thought to look up, and the look on the Rito warrior’s face was both embarrassment and shock.

Before he could spout out a warning, there was a strangled yelp that was ripped from Link’s throat as well as a deafening _whumph_ as he was careened into the ground under the weight of one Rito child.

“Master Link, you have returned!” Cried the child, the feathers on the top of his head perked forward and his beak split into a grin.

Link, flat on the ground now, coughed twice before beginning to pick himself up.

“I didn’t hurt you did I? Oh! Oh! I can fly now! Father has taught me so many things in your absence, you should see, you should see! And here, here I can- I can- _woosh! Woosh_ with a sword, and- and I can shoot a bow too! Just like you did at RIto Village! I bet even better!” Tulin’s voice became a humming white noise in the back of the group’s mind as Link brushed himself off and knelt in front of the child.

“I am so sorry,” Teba breathed, his soul physically trying to leave his body. 

Saki chuckled, then stepped forward towards the child. She raised her wing back, and suddenly clapped it forward over the hatchling’s head, ceasing his mindless chatter and causing him to lurch forwards. “You just knocked down the closest living person to Revali with your carelessness,” she crooned, her smile kind, but her expression haunting. “Apologize to Sir Link immediately.”

“S-sorry,” Tulin said, his eyes downcast and rubbing the back of his sore head with his wing. “I got a little carried away.”

Link laughed breathily, scrubbing his palm against his sore neck before laying it on top of the child’s head and patting it. 

“Tulin!” Cried Sidon, leaping forward. “Did you miss your uncle?”

“Prince Sidon!” The child met his enthusiasm by crashing into him, immediately wrestling the scarf from around the Zora’s chest and taunting him with it over his head.

“Quite the pair,” Riju deadpanned. The girls had naturally hovered towards Saki, trying to stay on the sensible side of the group.

“Truly, forgive my son for his rash actions. He only just learned to fly, and already I fear I have taught him so early,” Teba apologized profusely to Link, bowing profusely even as Link waved it off with a smile.

 _Want us to take him off your hands for a little while?_ The Champion offered.

Teba stared at him for a long moment, his soul seemingly returning to his body. “Goddesses, you do not understand how much we would appreciate that.”

“We’d be happy to watch him. Besides, it seems like there are several things he has to discuss with those two,” Zelda chimed in, gesturing to both her knight and the Prince. 

“You all are very generous. We are still settling a few things with Chief Kaneli before we will be ready for the gathering tonight, so that would be such a help,” Saki thanked them with a courteous bow.

“Speaking of the gathering,” Teba said, turning his attention towards the Princess. “If I understood the invitation correctly, the purpose of this meeting is to discuss you, correct?”

“Yes,” Zelda replied, “but if you are about to ask what exactly about me is being discussed, I am afraid I will have to disappoint you.”

“So the purpose has been completely left out?” Teba hummed thoughtfully. “Has anyone directly asked King Dorephan?”

Link nodded. _We asked upon our arrival._

“Has anyone tried asking him?” Teba gestured towards the Zora Prince now roughhousing with the young boy.

“We have, but Lord Dorephan has even left his son out of the discussion,” Zelda said, sighing in unison with the Gerudo girl.

“You would think he’d know, you know?” Riju said.

“Strange.” The Rito warrior huffed out air. “I hope it isn’t anything serious.”

“As do we all,” Zelda sighed.

“Master Link, Master Link!” Cried Tulin, flapping furiously away from the Prince. “Please teach me a few techniques with the sword! I wish to learn about Revali’s skill, and since you are the only one who would know, you’re the only one who can show me!”

The Champion smiled and nodded, glancing at Teba and Saki for permission as they both nodded exhaustedly. 

“Do not tackle any more bystanders,” Saki warned, tapping the hatchling on his beak with one of her feathers. “And listen to what Master Link says. No running off or being reckless.”

The child rolled his eyes. “Yes, mother.”

“Off you all go, then,” Saki said, shooing the group away with waving wings. “And be safe.”

The young boy all but attached himself to Link’s side, taking to the ground as he heaved in air as he had used up all his strength flying around like he had been. Zelda watched fondly as the Rito child recounted an obviously exaggerated retelling of how he had bravely fought off a sky bird from taking his mother’s freshly baked apple pie. Link followed along closely, reacting animatedly at every cliffhanger and suspense, hanging off of every word the child spat at him.

“He’s quite good with kids,” Riju mused, somewhat surprised. 

“It must come with age,” Sidon said, striking his typical pose with a look of determination on his features as they all began descending the cliffs near Vah Ruta. “After all, you are truly horrible with them, Riju, and you are the only one less than one hundred years old!”

“I myself am a child,” Riju hissed, suddenly defensive. “It is the same way as looking upon a more reckless version of yourself. All I want to do is correct his posture and ask him to be a little quieter.”

“But you will hold your tongue,” Zelda laughed, “for if you do not you will meet exactly what you fear: the feistier version of yourself.”

They all snickered, continuing down the path. 

“Well, if the kid’s going to train with Link, then they’re going to need some space to do it. Ploymus mountain is only just up the ways. Plenty of open space and far enough away from sheer cliffs that it’ll be safe for them to swing around their sticks aimlessly,” Sidon said, pointing towards the peaks. 

“Did you hear that?” Riju called back to the Champion and the young Rito who looked at her with equally quizzical expressions. “We’re going to make our way to Ploymus Mountain so you two can do your think up there.”

“Yes!” Tulin cheered, elation lighting his small face up. He lifted his wings and began swooping through the air, completing rather impressive loop-de-loops for an eight year old around them as they traversed the path, taking the path north instead of the western one that would take them back to Zora’s Domain.

Zelda fell back slightly, falling into step with her knight. “Can you handle him?” She teased, glancing at the energetic boy.

 _I can certainly humor him for a while. I have not had time to properly train anyway, so I can kill two birds with one stone this way,_ he signed. 

“Does he know sign language, do you think?” She asked.

 _Most likely not._ The Champion smiled sheepishly.

“Well, we’ll be there if you need it.”

“You know,” Sidon began from the front of the group, “there used to be talk of a lynel up here.”

“Really?” Riju asked, genuine shock overtaking her features. She tugged nervously on the end of her tied red hair. “What happened to it?”

“Well, there used to be a cocky man who would challenge Zora to jump off of Shatterback Point and into the East Reservoir Lake. Any sane person wouldn’t do it for fear of their life, but he would goad them into doing it by questioning their courage. Apparently though, a young girl was trying to put a stop to it, and commissioned another to get a picture of the Lynel that lived up here to scare people away before an accident could happen. They not only got the picture, but also killed the beast. People say that its bones can still be found up here,” Sidon explained.

Link chuckled, scratching the back of his head with a gloved hand before putting it down. _That was me, actually._

The other three, excluding the child who was still flying around them, all turned rather abruptly. 

“ _You_ killed that Lynel?” Sidon gaped.

 _Well, I figured that if the picture was not enough to scare people away that they might be in danger if it happened by while one made the jump, so I figured I should kill it and be done with it before someone not only was hurt leaping to their death, but also left with scars from an angry beast,_ the Champion signed.

“And you were _not_ scarred by such a beast?” Riju exclaimed, green eyes wide.

_Oh, I am. But better me than someone who might not have been able to defend themself._

“You impress me in new ways every day, Little Hylian,” Sidon expressed, closing his gaping jaw.

Zelda snapped her own shut, unbeknownst to this little tidbit of information until just now. She knew that Link had been around the bend in Hyrule while he was freeing the Divine Beasts, and for the most part she had been watching him. But it was still hard to wrap her head around the fact that she had missed small little details like this. That not only was he working to solve the bigger picture, but that he had dealt with smaller problems such as these along the way. It made her stop and truly appreciate how kind of a person Link truly was.

“Come on, come on!” Tulin whined from above them. “We only have a little more to go!”

The boy was right. As they crested the small hill the path had been taking them up, the lush grasses and scattered brush of Ploymus Mountain sprawled in front of them. The Rito child howled with excitement, sweeping into a nearby apple tree and snagging one of the ripe fruit into his wing. He took a crisp bite out of it, humming with satisfaction at its sweet taste.

Link jogged over to a nearby bush, snapping two branches off of it with a swift motion, and whistled to the young boy. Zelda, Riju, and Sidon all took a sideline view of the two as Link demonstrated correct posture while holding a ‘blade’ to the boy, and the hatchling who mirrored him perfectly with a suddenly serious expression.

“I wanted to play too,” Sidon pouted. 

“What’s stopping you from joining them?” Zelda asked the Prince.

“Well, look at them,” Riju said, motioning to the two who were completely in sync. “It would be a crime to stop them now.”

“Sidon would not have to stop them,” the Princess reasoned, looking around. There was another bush nearby, and she broke off a piece herself, then extended it towards the Zora. “Just go join them,” she said, a kind smile gracing her pretty features. 

“You’re right, Your Highness!” the Prince replied, snatching the stick in his clawed grasp. “I’m going to go train with them!”

He jogged off, and the two girls giggled as they all watched the others demonstrate a correct swing.

“They’re like baby sand seals,” Riju sighed, amused. “Give them a little piece of food and suddenly they’re undyingly loyal.”

“Yes, I suppose they are,” Zelda laughed, her eyes glued to the Hylian Champion who was demonstrating a proper dodge. He was focused on Sidon, who had his stick drawn threateningly. Link made sure the Rito child had his eyes on his legs as Sidon lunged forward and Link lunged to the side. Then, he motioned with his own stick for Tulin to do the same, and the process was repeated until Link gave an approving nod and hum.

The girls busied themselves collecting wild fruits nearby, chatting and gossiping about rumors they had heard around their respective palaces. The sun was high in the sky when they called the others over for a break, laying out the assortment of berries and apples they had managed to grab. Tulin eagerly grabbed just as much as Link did, but was unable to finish even half as many as the Champion had. Sidon challenged Link to see how many he could eat, but was sorely outmatched as the knight finished three more than he did. 

“How is it that you have such a large stomach for such a small individual?” The Zoran Prince had cried. “Your stomach must be elastic!”

“Well that is something new to research,” Zelda had joked, humored by the horrified expression Link gave as he swallowed another bite of apple.

“I’ll be able to eat just as many apples as you one day!” Tulin said, standing up straight and pointing at the Champion.

Link arched his brow and smirked, leaping backwards and grabbing his stick. The Rito child shrieked with laughter, grabbing his own and meeting Link’s every theatrical slash with one of his own.

“You get him, I’ll hold him down!” Sidon yelled, abandoning his meal to snag Link’s wrists and pin them to the grass. 

Link grinned, knowing he could very well wiggle out of this roughhousing as soon as he liked, but howled with mock pain as Tulin rose into the air and poked him gently in the chest with the end of his weapon.

“You’ve slain the Hero of Hyrule after he has raged uncontrollably across the land!” Sidon narrated dramatically. “Now, the title passes to you, young one! Hero of Hyrule from Rito Village is Tulin! Long may he live!”

Link clenched his eyes shut, allowing his body to go limp and his tongue to hang out of his mouth in a comical display of death, and Tulin marched around confidently, holding his stick up high.

“Long may he live!” Echoed the girls, appreciating the live entertainment.

The group was interrupted by a high pitched shriek that echoed throughout the mountain. Link sprang up, easily twisting himself out of Sidon’s grasp as they all turned their attention towards Zora’s Domain.

The noise stirred the birds from their resting places amongst the trees, and the Champion stood on edge. After a few moments it waned, and once again Ploymus Mountain went silent. Now that the birds had flown away, the only sound was the gentle breeze that licked the grass and shrubbery. All else was dead quiet.

“Goddesses,” Sidon groaned, scrubbing his face with a clawed hand. “I told them not to use that awful horn anymore.”

“That came from Zora’s Domain?” Zelda asked.

“Perhaps a warning?” Riju added, suddenly feeling a little out of place without Buliara at her side.

“No, no,” Sidon said, calming the group. “It’s what they used to use to signify when noon struck, but they abandoned it when we adopted clocks. I’m not sure why they’ve decided to use it again today.”

Link relaxed slightly, and Tulin looked up at the Champion. “You have to go, then?” The child asked.

The Champion looked down, then laid a gloved palm over his head gently and nodded.

“Come on, kid,” Sidon said, ushering the child back to his feet. “Let’s get you back to your parents before that horn freaks them out too badly.”

Riju and Zelda gathered up the fruit they had left, relinquishing the last apple to Link who bit into it with a satisfied crunch. However, he ate as he surveyed the area, clearly set on edge from the horn. It had no doubt reminded him of the horns that the Bokoblin blew when one had been alerted. The Champion flinched when Zelda had gently laid her hand on his shoulder. When he met her eyes, she gave a reassuring smile, one that made him soften just a little more.

Link drifted towards the rear of the group as Sidon blazed their trail that would return them to where the Rito had been camped out. Riju scurried to fall back into step with the Princess, carrying the fruit she had gathered in a haphazard makeshift bag from a loose piece of fabric from her dress, and the fruit bounced with every step the Chieftess took.

“Why do you suppose they blew that horn if they normally don't?” She called ahead to the marching Zora Prince.

“Perhaps to summon everyone? I truly am not sure,” Sidon replied. “I thought perhaps to gather everyone to call the meeting to order, but it was scheduled for this evening, so that’s unlikely.”

“Maybe everyone has arrived,” Zelda offered, “and he has decided to start earlier.”

“I doubt that, Your Highness,” Sidon sighed. “If there’s one thing my father knows not to do, it’s to host a summons full of hungry politicians and royalty. And seeing as though there has been no feast or banquet scheduled until later, I doubt that was the purpose.”

“Maybe there are attackers!” Tulin gasped.

“A very different horn would have been blown for that,” Sidon said, easing the child’s worries. “Whatever it was blown for, we can find out when we return to Zora’s Domain.”

The group all nodded, satisfied with that. It took them about thirty minutes to drop the Rito boy off with his parents and return to the central plaza in Zora’s Domain. After inquiring a guard about the horn, it was found that it was blown to disperse a large crowd that had gathered around a traveling merchant with a large backpack and a red nose when the people surrounding him had begun to disrupt foot traffic. 

Coincidentally they bumped into such a merchant, only to find Beedle excitedly launch himself to his feet and throw himself towards Link to shake his hand and animatedly greet him. Link had laughed, squatting down next to where the merchant sat and reviewing his wares. The Champion’s face lit up suddenly, holding out a finger to wait as he slung his satchel off his back and dug through it. Zelda was horrified by the beetle he pulled out, wondering what other horrors he kept in his bag, but Beedle’s jaw dropped and scrambled to take a closer look. After a little bargaining, Link took off with a few wrapped Staminoka Bass, and was one beetle less than he was before. The Princess asked him exactly how a bug could match the worth of several fish, but Link had insisted they were equal in value with a dismissive wave.

As the group made its way out of the main plaza, there was a thundering noise. Four Goron, clad in full armor, rolled towards the Zoran barracks a little ways away, and they all exchanged a knowing glance. It didn’t take them very long to find Bludo and Yunobo, seeing as though they were just as tall and thrice as wide as the Zora around them. When Yunobo spotted them, he said a few words to his boss who dismissed him with a wave of his large hand, and the young Goron scrambled over.

“Hey, everybody!” He greeted with a smile, Daruk’s blue Champion fabric still tied around his shoulders.

“Welcome to Zora’s Domain, Yunobo!” Sidon cried, returning the smile with his own shark-like teeth. “How was your journey?”

“It was okay, we didn’t run into any trouble,” the Goron began before setting eyes on the Princess. His already red cheeks blushed. “Oh!” He fell to one knee. “Forgive me, Your Highness, I did not see you, goro.”

Zelda chuckled. “Please rise, there is no need for such formalities.”

The Goron did not meet her eyes, but he dusted himself off as he brought himself back to his feet with a sheepish smile. “And Link! Good to see you again, brother.”

Link nodded with a friendly expression.

“I do not believe we’ve met,” Riju said, holding out her hand. 

“Ah, I’m sorry, no we haven’t, goro.” Yunobo took her significantly smaller hand into his own, shaking gently. “I’m Yunobo.”

“Riju of the Gerudo,” the young girl said. 

The Goron’s head shot up. “As in Chieftess of the Gerudo, goro?” He cried.

Everyone had a chuckle as the youth sputtered out a more formal greeting, flustered by the amount of royalty and importance around him as if he himself were not an important person himself. After some rushed apologies and exhausted and embarrassed expressions were shared, they all found themselves figuring out a way to pass the time. 

Sidon and Link wrestled with each other while Yunobo sat on the sidelines until he was waved in. It was decided quickly, however, that perhaps the Goron would be happier with less violent activities, especially after he had stumbled backwards into Link, pushing him to the ground with an unsettling crackle of his joints. Thankfully nothing had been broken, but it was painstaking the way he hunched for a few minutes before he could stretch away the discomfort.

Riju was chomping at the bit to join, and ended up wrestling with Sidon, and Link was jabbed at by the Princess. Yunobo was then designated as ref as a means of protecting the rest of the others from life-threatening strikes of his hard fists, and also as a means of making sure no one took anything a step too far. The Princess felt bad at first that he had to be excluded, but the youth actually seemed much more content and relaxed that he was no longer a true threat to his friends’ health.

So a small competition was held, and a circle drawn. Yunobo explained that it was an old Goron tradition - a type of wrestling. The goal was to push the other out of the circle by using the other’s balance and strength against them. Link found himself feeling an intense sense of deja vu as he easily tossed Sidon to the side and outside of the boundaries. Zelda faced off with Riju next, but a draw was called when neither were able to push the other out to the edge of the arena after ten minutes.

Similar games followed, along with bickering, badmouthing, and a whole lot of smacktalk, but as the sun traveled eastwards, they all figured now was as good a time to stop as any, and that it was time to clean themselves up for the feast and ready themselves for whatever the meeting was to bring.

After a little less than two hours passed, they all met up in the dining hall again, sitting with a fascinated Tulin who simply could not take his young eyes off of Yunobo who looked a little uncomfortable under his gaze. It wasn’t until Teba, who sat three tables away with Kaneli, had snatched him away that the Goron finally relaxed and dug into his Rock Roast that their race had brought with them. It was a good thing too, because Sidon quickly realized that the Zora would not have had anything for them to eat except for gems, and apparently that was akin to eating soap to the mountain-dwellers.

Hoz had showed up about an hour into their meal, surprising Link and causing him to almost choke on his bite of rice. They exchanged greetings quickly before the Champion introduced him to the rest, and Zelda found that despite his blatant formality and sense of duty, he was actually rather laid back once he had introduced himself. The question everyone had been asking promptly followed before being given the same answer everyone else had received. It only discouraged the soldier for a brief moment before he waltzed off to the other side of the dining hall to join the rest of the Hylian soldiers who a few of them seemed to be familiar with. 

As Link watched him walk to the other table, he met the gaze of others he hadn’t realized had come. Impa, Purah, and Robbie all sat together in a group of others at the far end of the hall, chatting amongst themselves as animatedly as two elders and one sort-of-elder could. The conversation was undoubtedly something research related, as Purah and Robbie seemed to be in heated debate. Impa looked rather unimpressed, opting instead to finish the plate of food in front of her.

However, time ticked by, and as Link bit into a seafood rice ball, there was a shushing of the crowds in the dining hall. Now adorned in his royal guard outfit, he felt the soft fabric shift against him as he turned towards the entrance. The rest of the group followed suit, all equally dressed up. Several servants ducked out of the way, clearing a path.

King Dorephan, enormous in his size, thanked the people who made way for him before slowly walking to the top of the hall where the musicians had been playing the night before. There, he stopped, and had effectively commanded a silence across the room. Everyone had their eyes glued on him, ready to hang off of any word he was about to say.

“My friends, my Princess, I welcome you all once again to Zora’s Domain,” he began in a booming voice that carried and echoed against the walls. “I hope that your accommodations have brought you comfort, and that you bring sound minds with you on your journey. I am sure that many of you are confused as to why exactly I have gathered you here, but I assure you that that will be disclosed as soon as we gather ourselves more formally in the meeting directly following this feast, but I implore you to relax. I hope you can feel reassured that I do not bring bad news, and only a discussion. For now, please enjoy your meal. Our gathering will begin in no less than an hour at the Zora Sanctum.”

With that, the king removed himself from his spot, and exited the dining hall in much the same manner as he had entered. It was only until he was completely out of sight that the hall began to liven up again.

“See?” Riju said at Zelda’s left, nudging her in the arm. “Nothing to worry about.”

Still, the Princess felt on edge, and she ran the multitude of possibilities that might concern King Dorephan through her head, stealing a rice ball off of Link’s plate.

“Cold hearted,” Sidon snickered, watching it be taken. 

The topic of conversation was picked up that had left off before, and Link and Sidon ran off to find another plate of food. Drink was taken around, but before Riju could accept any, Buliara crept up behind her and slid her hand over it, blocking the wine from getting in. The young girl whined, but was quickly set in her place again by the burly guard for even considering being anything less than at her frostiest for the meeting.

Zelda’s anxiety continued to chew at her, despite her friends’ constant reassurance, and it wasn’t until an hour had passed that she realized she had only psyched herself out about the gathering instead of mentally preparing herself. Or maybe the two were the same in this scenario. Either way, it didn’t make her any more prepared when a dark-finned Zora rushed up to the top of the hall and clinked a spoon against a glass.

As a hush fell over the dining hall once again, he shrilly said, “The king requests the presence of the following individuals as well as their personal guards if they decide they would prefer their attendance!” The man checked a crumpled piece of parchment in his hand. “ Princess Zelda of Hyrule Castle, Chieftess Riju of Gerudo, Bludo of Goron City, Reede of Hateno Village, Lady Impa of Kakariko Village, Lady Purah of the Hateno Tech Lab, Reede of Hateno Village, Kaneli of the Rito, and Prince Sidon of Zora’s Domain! Please meet King Dorephan in the Zoran Sanctum within the next few minutes, and the meeting shall begin.” He scampered out of sight, and Zelda dug her nails into the wooden table. 

She started when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder, whipping around to meet eyes with Link. _Do you want me to come?_ He signed, worry evident in his furrowed brows.

Normally she may have felt guilty for making him attend a boring meeting, but lately her knight had been making her feel safe in more ways than just physically. So when she scolded herself for being selfish as she nodded her head, the feeling was quickly dispersed and replaced with relief that her anchor would be there with her the whole time.

Riju nodded at Buliara who had asked the same question as the Champion had asked the Princess, and the same with Kaneli who had signalled Teba to accompany him. Yunobo, however, was requested to stay at the dining hall, and Hoz was unfortunately also unable to attend since only one guard was to be permitted at the meeting. Link made sure to apologize to him quickly before the group of politicians made their way to the Sanctum, insisting that if he had known space would be so limited that he would not have wasted the Hylian soldier’s time with coming all the way out here. 

Hoz, of course, waved this off, assuring the dirty-blond haired boy that he was happy to come even if it was for no other reason than a quick journey, and was about to explain that after being at Akkala stable for so long that he was actually desperate for a change of scenery, only he couldn’t finish because Link was pulled away by the Princess as everyone summoned began to make their way out of the dining hall.

The Champion righted himself quickly, allowing himself to fall easily back into his duty as he took his place in the large group who ducked out of the large blue archway and followed the Zoran Prince towards where they could only assume was the Sanctum.

Much like Hyrule Castle’s Sanctum, the Zora had a large domed area carved out of one of the nearby cliffs. In the center was a rather long table, and at the head of one side King Dorephan rested in a cloned version of his chair in his throne room. Zelda bit her lip nervously as everyone began to find seats for themselves, Zelda taking one near the end so as not to feel so trapped between people on either side of her. To her right was Kaneli, then Impa. Behind her, Link and Teba took a formal defensive pose behind their respective charges, passing a look to the other out of the corner of their eyes. 

Once everyone had taken a seat, and guards had been posted, King Dorephan smiled at his guests, leaving a prolonged silence to sit heavily in the air. Servants rushed to close the door, and suddenly not even the trickling sound of the water that surrounded the Sanctum could be heard, and a deafening quiet consumed the room.

“Thank you all for coming,” Dorephan said finally. “All of you are most likely wondering what exactly the reason is for bringing you all here. The answer to that, fortunately, is simple, but also one that I believe many of us have been thinking about for at least a little while.” 

The king stood from his seat, towering over the rest of the group, and everyone moved their eyes to follow the speaker’s as he continued. “As most of you know, Calamity Ganon has since been defeated for the past two years now. In this time, we have found ourselves celebrating a great era of prosperity, and are even gazing upon revitalized buildings long forgotten to ruin. 

“In addition, Hyrule Castle and Castle Town have been mostly rebuilt in this time, and most of the functioning governing body of Hyrule has been implemented once more after its one-hundred year hiatus. After facing doubt from her own people, Princess Zelda was able to prove herself to these doubters by demonstrating the power bestowed to her by the Goddess Hylia, and most of the opposition to her taking the throne was stomped down.

“Unfortunately, as many of you may have noticed, opposition to the throne is natural, and typically cannot be avoided no matter how strong a claim you have to it. It is simply a part of being a ruler. It is also, however, a responsibility of this ruler to know how to deal with such opposition when it arises, and that time will certainly come if nothing is done about it.”

“Are you suggesting that there is a gathering group of opposers?” Impa asked calmly from across the table.

“I am, Lady Impa,” King Dorephan replied.

“If opposition is happening, should it not then be up to the leaders of each individual clan or race to contain such a threat?” Riju chimed in.

“That would be possible if they were contained within one region, but that is not the case,” he replied. “I know that here in Zora some find it strange that the Hylians must be the ones in charge.”

“Do you share these ideas, King Dorephan?” Kaneli demanded.

“As leader of Zora’s Domain, I speak for my people when I say that we are loyal to the crown,” Dorephan defended quickly. “But as I said, there is no perfect kingdom without its doubters, and naturally some exist here.”

“They exist in Hyrule itself as well,” Zelda said. “I came here with an entourage of soldiers in order to make a statement. It was recommended to me by a trusted handmaiden.”

“She is a smart woman to have suggested that,” Bludo praised.

“I must ask all of you if you are all behind the Princess in her efforts to keep the throne,” Dorephan said, refocusing attention back on the issue. “If any have doubts I suggest you say them now so we can resolve them before we continue.”

“Princess Zelda has Gerudo Support,” Riju said, slamming her hand down on the table.

“As she does the Rito’s,” Kaneli echoed.

“I will not speak for all of my people, as we on Death Mountain have been relatively self-reliant throughout these past one-hundred years,” Bludo said cautiously. “However, I know that they will follow me unconditionally. And Princess, you have my support.”

“As does Zora’s Domain,” Sidon spoke up, sharing a definitive nod with his father. 

“Kakariko’s support as well,” Impa said.

“Reede?” Dorephan prompted the gangly man who sat opposite the Princess. “What says Hateno?”

The dark-haired leader hummed before nodding. “Although the Calamity’s blight did not reach as far as Hateno Village, you can count on our support in your endeavors, Princess.”

“That is everyone, then,” Dorephan concluded. “Now, I would like to introduce a possible temporary solution to this.

“As of yet, this opposition is not in fact that large of a threat. I believe that if we quell the rebellion before it starts, it will be solved far faster and far more peacefully. Right now, there only sits a Princess on the Hyrule throne. Typically there is a king or a queen to lead the people, and I believe that part of this insurgence is caused by the fact that there is simply neither of those.”

“So what are you suggesting, Lord Dorephan?” Zelda asked when the large Zora paused.

“My child,” Impa began, narrowing her eyes at the host at the head of the table, “he is suggesting a coronation.”

“Lady Impa is correct,” King Dorephan said, meeting the Princess’s shocked gaze. 

“And how exactly might this help?” She demanded, standing up from her seat.

“Putting roots into the throne is actually a rather smart plan,” Purah cut in. “Stabilizing your claim to the throne with a more permanent title will likely dissuade any unfavorable uprisings.”

“And hopefully more deeply demand an air of respect from your people as well,” Dorephan continued. “Not that you do not already have it, but that you simply cannot have enough.”

Zelda felt paralyzed where she stood. Queen? She wasn’t ready to be queen. Much less queen to the kingdom she had failed repeatedly a century ago - something her people weren’t ready to forget. “What makes you think anyone who was alive all those years ago will accept me as their queen?” She attempted.

“Well, that is why he wants to crown you in the first place, Your Highness,” Kaneli said. “If we do not crown you, there will continue to be opposition. If we crown you, surely there will still be opposition, but perhaps less because the title seems less replaceable.”

“And what if we are met with more opposition than before?” Zelda continued. 

“That is a risk we should all be willing to take,” Impa said, “but taking no action is worse.”

“Yes, leaving this alone will do nothing more than stir the pot, goro,” Bludo jumped in, stroking his beard with large, rocky fingers. 

“It is either having a small chance of meeting less issues in the future, or surely meeting them,” Dorephan said.

Zelda bit the inside of her mouth hard enough that she tasted tangy copper. 

“Forgive me, Princess, but why do you so oppose this?” Kaneli asked. “You were raised to one day inherit the throne.”

The Princess looked away, shame and guilt plaguing her expression. “I knew that one day I would have to take the throne, only I wish it were under better circumstances. It is not that I do not want it, but simply that I feel I have not earned it,” she explained. “I do not want my people to believe that because of what has happened in the past, their future will also look grim.”

“Darling,” Purah started, searching for the green eyes of the royalty before her. “I can guarantee that most people do not feel that way.”

“She’s right,” Bludo agreed. “Even if there were problems that you faced in the past, the fact of the matter is that you faced your consequences and took responsibility. And in the end, you went even further beyond, going so far as to rebuild the kingdom that crumbled before, goro.”

“And now an era of peace has washed over us,” Impa continued. “None of that would be possible without you, Princess.”

“But if that were true, then opposition would not be an issue right now,” the Priness bit back. “If that were true, everyone would be happy, only they are not. The fact that some still doubt my claim to the throne is proof enough that some still resent my mistakes in the past.”

“Princess Zelda, as King Dorephan said, the dream of keeping every single Hyrulian within your good graces is unfortunately just that: a dream. The reality we face now must be met with prevention in order to preserve the future. I, for one, am in favor of such an option,” Kaneli said.

“As am I,” Impa repeated, followed by the rest of the table.

“Of course,” Dorephan continued, “this is only a temporary solution. There are further measures that we can take in the case that this opposition continues to grow even after Princess Zelda becomes queen.”

The king opened his mouth to speak again, but was stopped by Impa. “She is not ready, Dorephan.”

Zelda’s head whipped to the old woman, anxiety causing her stomach to do flips. “Ready for what?”

The large Zora looked to the elder, raising his eyebrows as if in question about whether he might be interrupted again should he try to speak. Impa waved such a look off with a dismissive hand, and the king again began to speak. “If we crown you and the opposition continues, my ideals to strengthen your hold on your throne would stay the same. As such, I recommend thinking about finding yourself a king.”

Zelda felt her heart drop. Behind her, her stoic and typically silent knight shifted audibly. As someone who never made noise unless he meant to, Zelda knew that the king’s comment had struck her in a weak spot just as hard as it did him.

“I’m sorry, but is that truly necessary?” Riju said. “We Gerudo have never found ourselves in need of two figureheads, and rarely keep partners at our side. Why should Princess Zelda need to take a husband when there are several other ways to demonstrate power over the people?”

“With all respect, Chieftess Riju, goro,” Bludo began, “Hyrule has a large larger populace count than Gerudo. Controlling the people when they have you outnumbered so would be unwise. I have to agree with King Dorephan that having someone else in power will dissuade misconduct, goro.”

Zelda suddenly stood, her blood boiling, but she reminded herself to remain calm and orderly. Allowing her temper to get the best of her would not help her case right now. “I will not just take any husband just to make a point.”

“Your Highness, if I may speak so freely, finding suitors to match with in order to take the crown at your side is not always about finding someone you want, but more about what is best for the kingdom,” Kaneli said gently.

Her skin crawled at the thought.

“I hate to bring this up after such repose to the idea,” King Dorephan treaded carefully, “but there is also the issue of heirs. I realize that you are still young, but your physical age has matured enough that it is something to be thinking about.”

Link’s grip on the Master Sword, which he had propped in front of him, tightened to the point that Zelda could hear the way the gloves scraped against its handle. She wished she could turn around and reassure him that all of this made her just as uncomfortable as the rest, but it was unfortunately making a lot of sense. None of this was guaranteed to solve the issue, but they were steps in the right direction. The Goddesses knew that the Princess was struggling to think up any different ones.

“Let us take this one step at a time,” Purah suggested.

“I agree,” Impa continued. “Let us first worry about crowning her, then we can set up some suitors.”

The reality of the others discussing her future for her made Zelda sick to her stomach, but she was weak to fight against their ideas. She knew that she could not afford to look weak-minded, knowing that her immature reasoning that the entire reason she would rather not take their advice was simply because she did not want to. Especially in this meeting, discussing ways to quell rebellion caused by her loose hold on the throne, she did not want to give the others a reason to doubt her capabilities regarding it.

So, even as her shoulders trembled and ears filled with only the sound of her own blood rushing through her ears, she stood from her chair as gracefully as she could. “Who do you suggest I take as king?”

King Dorephan looked a little uncomfortable for a moment. “Perhaps a noble from Hyrule. Or a large business owner. Someone of stature within the Castle, or even their son? Preferably one near your physical age.”

She ground her teeth, keeping her temper in check. The Princess looked around the table for a moment, taking in everyone’s expressions. Riju’s was one of worry, Sidon’s one of pity, and Impa’s one of regretful sorrow. She wished she could lash out at them all, insist that she had a better plan, but she knew that would be a lie. 

For as much as she opposed these ideas because she already loved the man who stood behind her, she knew that the second she chose her kingdom after Calamity Ganon’s defeat was the second she resigned herself to taking these actions. She knew she was always going to be queen, and to be married, and to have children, only she childishly did not anticipate how and with whom she would share these experiences.

So after a very long pause, the princess resigned herself to defeat. What else was there to do? 

“Very well,” she breathed, her demeanor deflating.

Zelda wasn’t sure if the silence that came from Link behind her was merciful or meant to torture her, but she did not want to look behind her for fear that suspicion might rise.

“Your Highness, I am sorry that this has upsetted you, but something simply must be done,” King Dorephan said.

“There must be other options,” Riju insisted from the other end of the table. “What if she were to take up arms if these opposers decided to use force? It would demonstrate to the people that the Crown does not tolerate such uprisings.”

“Taking arms up against one’s own people is ill-advised, goro,” Bludo said. “Starting a civil war would only encourage the idea that there might be reason to go against the Crown.”

The Gerudo girl looked down shamefully, her face pinched with empathy for her Princess.

“Again,” King Dorephan continued, “we shall take this one step at a time. Perhaps finding a king may not be necessary just yet after the coronation, so I suggest we schedule that first. In the meantime we can gather some intelligence on opposers within the higher ranks of the kingdom, and make sure they are invited to witness such an occasion.”

“Could that not become a potential security threat if they decide to take a violent approach to their radicalism?” Kaneli asked.

“Typically a coronation naturally has a higher detail of security, but for the sake of this one, we can double it. Besides, nothing gets past that one,” the Zora said, smiling and gesturing at Link.

Everyone turned to him, and suddenly Zelda felt cold knowing that now was a perfect excuse to gage his reaction to all of what they had discussed. She wanted to hide away, but she found herself dragging her eyes towards the knight behind her as she twisted around.

His blue eyes burned angrily, and his jaw clenched rigidly. His gaze was set on the wall across the Sanctum, and he did not react to King Dorephan’s comment at all. Without warning, his eyes snapped to hers, and even though they softened just a fraction, Zelda found herself fleeing them by turning back around in her chair.

Dorephan cleared his throat awkwardly after having received no response from the knight. “Dutiful as ever,” he chuckled dryly. “As for the coronation, I suggest we hold it in a few months. That should give us enough time to figure out who exactly we are dealing with, and ample also to make preparations. In order to make the most impression, it is important that this coronation be as flamboyant as possible. Spare no expense as long as the budget is taken into account. Kaneli, as our treasurer can we count on you to find or gather funds where needed?”

The Rito leader stroked his chin feathers. “We may have to get a little creative with gathering funds since I doubt raising taxes in a time where people are beginning to question the throne is a good idea, but I can certainly see where I can move around some priorities if need be. Fortunately we are in a rare time of prosperity, and there is more going around than you would expect of just a 2-year revitalized kingdom.”

“Fantastic,” Dorephan said. “So, the coronation will be hosted in three months. Are there any significant dates that should be avoided?”

“There is a Gerudo holiday on the eighth day,” Riju said. “It lasts three days, so it ends on the eleventh. Anytime after that is fine with our people.”

“Also an annual dig and feast for the Goron on the tenth, goro,” Bludo added.

“Anyone else?” The Zora asked, sweeping his eyes across the room. When he met no other interjections, he continued, “Then do any oppose the twenty-second?”

A chorus of shaking heads was all the response he needed, and he nodded curtly at the rest of them. “Then it is decided. On the twenty-second of the eighth month we shall have Princess Zelda’s coronation at Hyrule castle. If it is alright with the rest of you, I would like to touch on some lesser topics regarding the budget and a few monster problems the Akkalan people have reported.”

The Princess tuned out of the business that followed, too distracted by the fate that was just decided for her to process any of what Kaneli was spouting about the budget and current profit margins. She supposed that perhaps she was being dramatic, knowing that she had already submitted herself to such a life already, but it didn’t come as any less of a shock when it was actually happening. She felt immeasurably small sitting in her chair chewing the inside of her cheek anxiously as the realization of everything began to sink in. So desperately she wanted to turn around and find comfort in Link’s arms, to cry into his uniform and beg him to believe that she didn’t want any of this to happen, but of course no such thing could happen.

In fact, when she had looked at Link behind her, she had thought that he looked angry, and it stung horribly knowing that he felt this way about something so out of her control. Silently, she cursed the people opposing her, blaming the events that were to follow on them.

And as the meeting drawled on, she only felt her feelings twist further and further.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: the interaction with "five more minutes," "but you've slept one hundred years!", "fine, two more minutes," is based off of a meme I saw recently. This direct link is to the artist's page, and more specifically the art they posted containing this dialogue, so please support them!: https://mochi-dayo.tumblr.com/post/617832748494798848/shouldve-done-this-the-first-time-i-played-botw


	7. Cruelty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy gods, this chapter alone is 25k words. My inconsistency is showing.

The meeting was dismissed about an hour later, and as they were all ushered out of the Sanctum, the sun had become low in the sky. At this time, perhaps anyone else might still be enjoying the buffet or supping alcohol with friends, but Zelda wouldn’t be able to stomach social interaction like that after such a meeting, so she decided to resign early to her chambers.

As she strode towards the main Plaza, her gown fluttering behind her, she could hear the subtle clinking of Link’s sword as he trailed her a few steps back. Her steps were purposeful and urgent with the unease that the meeting had brought her, and she brushed passed several Zora who quickly made way for her as she stormed by. The Princess was long finished with trying to keep her blood from boiling, and it showed in the way she clenched her fists and the irritated resting expression she now wore.

They made it through the plaza, into the lodgings, and through the maze of halls in little more than ten minutes before the girl allowed herself the freedom in the empty halls to spill over the edge.

“How could they even suggest such a thing?” She boiled, throwing the large door open. The bangles around her wrists were torn off, thrown onto the vanity against the right wall. “I am not a child any more - if they can wait three months for a coronation they can wait three months to allow me to figure out a way to deal with the opposition of my people another way!”

Link did not follow her into her room, wise to allow the rage of the dragon exhaust itself where he couldn’t be burnt. Instead, he waited at its maw, watching as she ripped the jewelry off of herself.

“And truly, who are they to decide what fate I will have? I am not only their Princess, but I am also my own person. I will not take just anyone to be my husband, and certainly not for such political reasons!” Zelda reached behind her back to begin undoing the ties of her dress, and her knight quickly spun around.

“I mean, the gall! I know my duties to my kingdom, but there must be other ways to deal with these things. And Dorephan - if he had just included the purpose of this meeting in his invitation perhaps I could have come up with a few more solutions to propose in the time that we had pending our arrival. It is like he wanted to corner everyone into thinking there was only one way to go about this issue, and because no one else could think up anything else on such short notice, his plan was the one chosen!” Her dress dropped to the floor, and she clawed at the same sandals she had worn to the banquet the other night, the straps just as stubborn today as they were before. 

“And the comment about heirs? No - even the comment about taking a spouse! I know I have already said my piece, but what business is it of theirs how quickly I ‘produce’ heirs and whom they are produced with! And the use of such a word, as if I am some sort of sheikah technology simply to pump out children and nothing more. It was humiliating.”

Link stiffened by the doorway uncomfortably, clenching his eyes at the thought of Zelda married and with children to someone else. It was a disheartening image, but he had to remind himself that this is what he had signed up for. The Princess was always going to be queen, and eventually she would have to settle down with someone. And being with a member of the royal guard was not exactly ideal for the reputation of royalty.

“Oh, say something, Link! I know you were just as upset about this as I am!” She cried, marching up to him in nothing more than her undergarments. She grabbed his shoulder to spin him around, but the knight did not budge.

The man looked down at his hands for a moment, clenching them into fists before releasing them. Zelda moved to his side in order to catch his gaze, but he averted his eyes.

“Nothing? Truly nothing?” The Princess breathed exasperatedly. She was hurt by his silence.

Link looked at the ground, then raised his hands. _Goodnight, Princess._

Zelda was taken aback. “So that is it? I ask you to call me by name this morning, and now that this meeting has finished we are back where we were before?”

The Champion’s jaw was rigid, and his eyes were glued at the far wall in the hall.

The Princess felt tears in her eyes. “Why are you not upset? Why don’t you react? They just decided my future in there, telling me that if the opposition does not cease after I am crowned that I will be married off like some prized steer to have children with someone I do not love.”

Again, she was met with silence.

A hot tear fell down her face. “Does this truly mean so little to you?”

His gaze suddenly snapped to hers, his hands flying up. _It means everything to me, and that is why I cannot react._

“What does that mean?” She sobbed, grabbing at the sleeve of his uniform’s coat.

_We both knew what we were getting into, Zelda. We both knew that when the time came whatever we have had to come to an end._

“But it is not fair!”

The Champion scrubbed at his face. _Nothing is fair here, Princess! No part of our lives have been fair! Why should this be any different?_

“You act like this is completely natural, like you want this to end,” Zelda continued to cry, desperately wiping away the tears that fell down her face.

 _Of course I do not want this to end, stupid!_ He signed quickly. _But this is the reality of our situation._

“Don’t talk like that,” she pleaded weakly. 

_There is nothing else to say, Zelda!_ Link’s foot caught the door, swinging it shut before any passerby found the Princess half-naked and sobbing into his arms. 

As soon as it shut, Zelda crumpled to the floor, dragging the Champion down with her. Through bleary eyes, she blinked up at him, and for the first time since her breakdown saw that he was just as distraught and sad as she did. But instead of saying anything, he simply curled her into his arms, rocking her gently as a violent sob shook through her again.

She felt hopeless - like she had made the wrong choice of putting the kingdom back together. If it meant that the feelings that had been fully realized and acted on only recently between the one she had discovered she loved after all this time had to be crushed, she decided it wasn’t something she wanted. But she also could not simply put the kingdom on hold. She had just as many soul-crushingly important duties to her people as she did when she was trying to manifest her power one hundred years ago. And the conscious choice she had made to rebuild her throne was something she had done on her own, but with hindsight was now regretting her decision.

“I do not want to lose you.” Zelda cried into his shoulder, the soothing hand running circles across the expanse of her back doing nothing to calm her. “But if the coronation is not enough, I- then we-”

Link squeezed her tightly against him when she could not finish her thought, instead shrinking back into his chest as another strangled noise left her throat. He allowed her a moment to hold onto him, and the Champion furrowed his brow as he tried to get a grip on his own emotions. 

A part of him wanted to be angry with her. She had decided to put the kingdom back together, and now she wanted to risk it all for something as trivial as a forbidden relationship like a child. He wanted to scold her for being so naive, to tell her that not everything could be about her, and that sometimes sacrifices had to be made. 

But another part of him empathized deeply with her sadness, because he too was devastated by the reality of their situation. He had fallen in love with the single person he could never have, and now such a small threat as a group of radicals was threatening his ability to be with her, even though he knew that he could never realistically be with her at all. Their future, should there even be one, would be full of sorrow and goodbyes. It would be full of disappointment watching her have to go back to her spouse after sneaking out for the night. It would be full of pain watching their children run around knowing that they were not his. Knowing that her partner, one she did not love, one that did not love her the way he did, had been with her the same way he had. Knowing that he would have to bite back his vomit when their skin touched. Knowing he would have to restrain himself enough when he kissed her in front of everyone else.

So with nothing more he could do in this hopeless scenario, he could only rock her gently in his arms, hold her closely, and wait for her tears to stop. He wished it would be over soon, so that he could sort himself out and be strong for the both of them, because that was the only thing he knew how to do, but her sobs only continued. After several minutes, another worry that she might become dehydrated was added onto his list of anxieties, but she would not let him go.

And it was cruel. Cruel and inhumane the way she held him like a lifeline. Held him in his spot where he could not flee or distance himself; where he could not protect himself from the hurt he knew would eventually come. His eyes felt hot, and when he closed them he felt a tear of his own slip down his cheek where it dripped off his chin and into her blonde hair.

It took several hours to finally calm the Princess down enough that the knight was able to detach himself from her long enough to fetch a glass of water and a nightgown. Zelda took both of them gratefully, guilt eating away at her when Link turned around respectfully as she changed as if he hadn’t been holding her half-naked on the floor for the past while.

Her head ached, and her face felt hot as she wiped the tears that still clung to the corners of her eyes with her wrist. With several sniffles and a whimper as she bit back another sob, Link gently lifted her in his arms and placed her in the middle of her bed. He rifled with the covers, tucking her thoroughly beneath them until only her head was above them. The Princess was too tired to argue, but laughed weakly as he patted her sides resolutely with a small smile.

 _Good night, Zelda,_ he signed again. 

She looked at him mournfully.

 _We will get through this,_ he added, holding out his pinky finger.

Buried beneath the covers, she fished her arm out enough to wrap her own pinky around his, locking what he said into a promise.

Satisfied, he leaned down carefully to lay a kiss on her forehead, but she did not miss the way his face fell when he pulled away. Link turned towards the door on the other side of the room, but did not get any farther than one step from the bedside. The same hand the Princess had caught his finger in had reached out to grab his sleeve, halting him in place. Her gaze was pleading, and she was sure that she looked as pitiful as she felt.

“Please,” she breathed, “do not go.”

Zelda half expected Link to find an excuse not to as he usually did before giving into her wishes, but was surprised when she met no resistance this time. He faced her, locking gazes with her for a moment, and the Princess found herself adrift in the heartbreaking look in his blue eyes. He looked like a puppy thrice kicked, and she so badly wished she could comfort him the way he had comforted her, but she did not trust herself to hold herself together the way he did. 

But goddesses, she would hate herself if she didn’t try. So she tugged him closer, and he followed the pull of her arm until he reached the edge of the mattress. Link lifted a knee, removing the Master Sword from around his body and crawling up next to her. He laid down right in front of her face, and the Princess was consumed by fondness at the way his cheek was squished against the pillow. His hand sought out the one that the Princess had grabbed him with, and he looked down at the way their hands meshed together.

Her hands were so much more delicate than his - the skin much smoother and prettier. His were scarred and calloused where his skin showed through his gloves, every bump and scratch earned from a victory or taken in a hellish beating.

It was still a marvel to him, however, how easily their fingers interlocked. How hers laced perfectly into his, and a great warmth could be found where their skin met. It was addicting and thrilling that he could hold her hand like this. He wanted to be able to march around all of Hyrule proudly, to tell her that he would never let her go in the most literal way if he could, but no such reality would ever allow that.

His depressing spiral of thoughts was cut short as the Princess began to trace the scars across his thumb with her own, and Link watched her face as the girl looked on with nothing less than complete devotion and admiration as she traced a deep scratch.

“I wish I was as strong as you,” she whispered. “Perhaps if I were things would be easier.”

When she dragged her eyes up to meet his own, his face pinched with sorrow. He wanted to tell her that there was nothing easier about being him, but his hand was locked in her grasp. Instead, he leaned forward just slightly to lay a kiss on her nose, which spoke the same volumes if he had any say on the matter.

It was times like these that the Princess did her best to forget her worries, instead able to lose herself in the warm proximity of his body. But when she tried to wiggle closer, to find comfort in listening to the steady beat of his heart, she shifted away from her.

The insult wounded her pride deeply, and when she looked up into his eyes to find a reason for his retreat, he let go of her hands to hold them up in front of her face. _Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?_ He signed, his face regretful.

“Because no matter what happens I know that in the end I will not take anyone else,” she whispered, lifting the hand he had released to cup his cheek. “Destiny and duty be damned.”

_I cannot let you forsake your kingdom for this. You have worked too hard._

Her expression softened, sadness overwhelming her. “I wish you would.”

Link captured her wrist in his hand, then pulled it back under the covers. The Princess tried not to let herself cry again, and instead submitted herself to holding back her tears by closing her eyes and leaning into her pillow. The Champion had begun petting her hair softly, tucking strands that fell over her shoulder behind her ear and lingering on the skin behind it, and in the gentle, loving embrace of cruel fate, the Princess was able to find restless sleep.

\--

When her eyes fluttered open, her entire body felt heavy, and her chest tight. No matter how many deep breaths she took as she roused herself from the grasp on unconsciousness, she was unable to shake this feeling, and when she tried to focus on the room around her her eyes ached. 

She knew this sensation. It was how she felt after falling asleep crying. Like all her energy had been drained from her, and all she wanted to do was lay back down and hibernate for the next month. But the unfamiliarity of the feeling of the sheets against her skin reminded her that she couldn’t just sleep in.

That, and the deadweight of her knight’s arm around her side.

At some point during the night, Link must have rolled towards her, and now she was tucked protectively against his chest, cradled in his embrace. She could hear his heart beating faintly through his uniform that he hadn’t had the chance to remove the night before, but it wasn’t steady. 

Zelda quickly deduced that he must be awake, for the unsteady hammering of his heart that could even be heard through his clothing also matched his uneven breathing. 

“Good morning,” she mumbled into his chest.

Link only squeezed her tighter to him, unable to bid her good morning without separating. 

“What time is it?” She asked, allowing her eyes to close again.

Four taps against her back was all she needed.

“Not really morning yet, then, is it?” the Princess chuckled. 

Of course, silence followed, and she wiggled backwards out of his grasp to allow him space for response. He let her slip out of his arms without struggle, though his hands lingered where they were for just a moment as if savoring her before she left.

His left arm was still trapped beneath her neck, but when he had enough space he rolled onto his back. His blue eyes were glazed over, his face utterly unreadable, and a pensive expression soured his handsome features. Zelda thought that maybe he would snap out of it in a moment or two, but after blinking twice, she could not bring herself to let the crushing weight of silence consume them any longer.

“What are you thinking about?” Zelda asked, snuggling into his arm. 

He bent his left elbow enough that he might begin stroking her hair idly for a moment before pulling his hands free so he could respond. _About a dream,_ he signed.

“A good one?” She prompted.

_I think so._

“Well,” the Princess said, ready to listen intently, “what happened in it?”

_Nothing really happened. It was warm, and green. On a hill of some kind, I think. Like the ones on the Hyrule Plateau._

“Then what has you thinking so hard about it?” Zelda sat up slightly to bring her hands up and softly brush his bangs from his face.

 _Because maybe it was a memory,_ Link replied, allowing his eyelids to fall at the soothing feeling of her fingers against his scalp.

“Was it?” She continued, brushing her hand through dirty blond locks.

 _I do not know._ He looked down, and suddenly there was a sadness in his expression.

“What is wrong?” Zelda asked gently, furrowing her brow at his reaction.

 _I wish I could remember more than what I already do,_ Link signed, his hands falling to his chest after he was finished.

“I thought many of your memories had come back after your Sleep?” 

_I remembered enough of what mattered, but there are still huge gaps missing,_ the Champion explained, his face pinching.

“Like what?”

 _How I met you, for one,_ he began, shifting his eyes to meet hers. _Where I learned to cook, how I learned so much about horses._

The Princess opened her mouth, but his face twisted with something of frustration, his eyes wide with a grief she could not describe.

 _What my parents looked like, my birthday, how I met the rest of the Champions._ His hands began signing so quickly that Zelda had trouble keeping up, but thought it a bad idea to stop him by taking his wrists. She wasn’t sure how many reasons he flew through, but she continued to stroke his hair as calmly as she could as his face went through grief, rage, and finally depression.

By the time he had finished what could only have been at least ten other things he had forgotten, a tear had slipped down his cheek, and he viciously wiped it away with a white glove.

 _I am missing everything that makes me who I am_ , he finally signed after taking a deep, shuddering breath.

The Princess tried hard to empathize with him, but she had never experienced amnesia before. She wanted to tell him that everything was going to be alright, that things would eventually come back to him, but she simply didn’t know if that was true. 

“I may be able to fill in some gaps for you,” she said, “but some I am not sure about. Would you like to hear them?”

He looked at her desperately, his bottom lip trembling, and he nodded weakly.

“Well, for starters, I met you for the first time when I was nine years old. Your father was a royal guard, you see, and when you came of age to realize you wanted to follow in his footsteps he often took you with him on patrols. The first time I saw you I was on a walk with a handmaiden after praying that morning, but you ducked so quickly behind your father’s legs that I couldn’t get a good look at you,” she chuckled, remembering the shy look on the boy’s face.

Link let out a strangled laugh of his own, and the Princess revelled in the sound of his voice.

“Your parents I did not know much about, really. I believe your mother passed before I met you, and your father succumbed to a plague that swept through a small village where he had been posted. But your father was a burly man with the same color hair as yours. Much shorter, though. He wandered the castle with it trimmed to just a few centimeters. He always wore a fake-golden bangle that I always wondered why he wore because it lost its pretty color just a week after he began wearing it. I suspect it was a gift of some kind.

“Your birthday, I believe, is only seven months before mine. Specifically on the fourteenth, if I recall correctly. Though I have never seen you celebrate it once. In fact, I never knew you to be anything more than dutiful. Even before I appointed you my knight, there was never a day that went by that you took time to do something exclusively for yourself. Of course, you would go off and do something with a few of your friends on your days off because I never saw you on those, but you were always uptight and polite whenever we shared space.

“As for meeting the other Champions, I believe you met them at the ceremony hosted to appoint everyone that title, actually. Though, you did know Mipha before.”

 _When I came to Zora’s Domain after I woke up, many people claimed to know me from when they were children. That I had played with them in the rivers. And I remember Mipha had said something about healing me when we were children, so I must have known her,_ he interjected.

“Yes, the two of you were very close even in your Champion years,” she said, biting back a flare of jealousy. She knew that Mipha had been infatuated with the Hylian Champion for a very long time, going so far as to make him the Zora Armor that was supposed to be somewhat of a betrothal gift. Zelda was never clear on whether they had been an item, however. After Link had been assigned to the guard, he had all but abandoned everything else, feelings and hobbies included in favor of committing himself fully to his duties.

“Now truly, I do not know exactly how you learnt so much about horses, but I do remember the stable boys praising you when you must have been around twelve. They had apparently commandeered an ‘untamable mount’ that was impossible to catch from its pasture. It was supposed to be sold at the next market for its misbehavior, the royal stablemen fed up with its ornery personality, but it must have taken a likeness to you, because as far as I heard, you were the only one it would take. I remember one time passing the stables, and the beast was trying to kick open its stall when you took Epona out for a jog,” she explained, taking a few tufts of his hair and braiding the thin strands deftly.

After a few moments of silence, Link lifted his hands. _When I hear these stories, I feel like I am listening to someone else’s life,_ he signed.

Zelda sighed deeply. “No one expects you to be exactly the same as you were. Since those times, you have died, slept for a hundred years, and killed an ancient evil that raged through the province for as long as you had slept. And certainly no one expects you to be the same person when you can only remember fragments of your past life.”

 _But I want to figure out who I used to be. Even if I am not that person any longer._

“And until that happens, we will be here to support you. No matter what,” she whispered, smiling softly at him. “And whoever you decide to be now, I will love you the same.”

Link’s lips split into a dopey grin, and he wiped away another tear that slipped out of the corner of his eye as the tips of his ears brightened. Zelda felt relief wash over her as she turned her attention back to the short little braids she was tying into the hair by his ear. But after a few minutes of silence, she looked back to him when he touched her arm gently to gain her attention.

_Could I ask you one more thing? He signed, his face growing serious._

“Anything,” she replied.

 _Do you know why I never speak?_

The weight of the question surprised her. It took her a moment to gather herself enough to form a coherent answer. “Ever since I met you, you have never uttered a word in my presence. I used to think it was an insult, really. Before you saved me from the Yiga all those years ago, I resented you for being the living conglomeration of my failures, and thought that your silence was a layer of unkempt arrogance. Obviously that was not the case. I asked Mipha the same question, actually. She told me that you had never spoken directly to her either, so I decided it was not personal after all. I did ask you once, though. You hesitated at first, but you told me that it was to be strong, and to bear your burden of responsibility silently.”

His face wrinkled. _That…_ his hands froze for a moment, twitched, then continued. _That doesn’t sound right._

“What makes you say that?”

_I just… That cannot be all. There has to be more to it._

“I thought it was a little dissatisfying when you said that, but I didn’t want to pry more than I already had at the time. I figured that there would be more time to find out what else there was, but…” Her voice trailed off.

Another beat of silence. _I try sometimes._

Her eyes grew wide. “To speak?”

Link nodded, causing her to fumble with her grasp on the fifth little braid. _Assuming there truly is more to it than what I told you, I still cannot remember that reason, and that makes me think that perhaps I should be able to. Because I do not remember why, then surely I could force myself to do it._

“But it does not work?” 

_Every time I open my mouth to form a word, it fades in my throat. It used to frustrate me, because surely if I can laugh and yell then I can speak as well. I know I am physically capable of it, but the words - they just…_ he waved his hands in a way that could not have been a word, but after a moment lifted them to finish, _disappear._

“No one blames you for your silence,” she said softly, twirling her latest braid between her fingers delicately. “No one resents you for it. There is no reason to force yourself to do something your body rejects, even if you should feasibly be able to.”

_I just wish I knew why it is rejected. I have no scars on my neck that might suggest I was hurt, and of course I have no memory of the event, so why? Why am I so incapable of a basic function?_

“Hey,” Zelda started, frowning at him. “There is no reason to be upset with yourself over this. There is no reason for you to speak when you communicate just fine like this. You simply must trust that there is a reason, and that you are no less valuable without a voice than if you were with one.”

_I still cannot help the way it frustrates me._

“Well, if you ever want to practice, I will be happy to help in any way I can. Even if that means standing behind a door while you do. In any case, I will support any decision you make,” she said, smiling. 

Link laughed breathily, his dimples carving pools into the shallows of his cheeks. The Princess grinned in kind, happy that the boy beneath her was feeling a little better. She leaned down to lay a kiss on his forehead, allowing her left hand to take hold of his jaw gently and let her fingers trail across the line of the sharp bone as she pulled away.

“How long have you been awake?” Zelda asked quietly.

 _A few hours, I guess,_ he relented, melting into the soft caress of her fingers.

The Princess glanced at the clock again. It was only half-past four in the morning still. “You should go back to sleep, then. You have not slept very long.”

 _If I could, I would have,_ he signed.

“Well, what usually helps?”

The blond-haired boy looked pensive for a moment, then lifted his hands. _Training._

“How very in-character of you,” she deadpanned. “But you will not swing that sword around in here at such an ungodly hour.”

Link chuckled, turning his head to meet her gaze. 

For a moment, she lost herself in his eyes. They truly were beautiful - especially in the blueish light that cascaded into their window. The color was inconsistent, though, but that only added to their charm. Deeper on the bottom than on the top, it greatly resembled seafoam as it receded back towards deeper water.

She shook her head, clearing her throat quietly. “Just try to close your eyes.”

The boy smiled softly, but did as he was told. His grin did not fade, though.

“You are not even trying,” she laughed, combing her fingers back into his hair to push back unruly bangs.

He snickered, lifting his hands. _I am, I am._

“You should not lie to me, knight,” Zelda warned teasingly, warmth in the form of fondness spreading throughout her chest.

His smile faded only slightly. _I will never lie to you, Zelda._

She felt slightly taken aback at his forwardness. The Princess hadn’t meant it in such a serious way, but his genuine answer forced her to take in the depth of his statement and pause her gentle petting of his hair.

“Well,” she began, her face red, “try harder.”

Link’s lip twitched upward, but he promptly straightened it out. He was never one to disobey a command, especially not from her. So he did try harder, forced his mind clear of all the turmoil that typically stirred there, focusing only on how warm he was sleeping in his stuffy uniform, the weight of Zelda’s calf that draped across his own, the uncomfortable feeling of leather on his hands from his gloves, and the soothing sensation of her fingers pulling hair away from his ears. It wouldn’t be too far a leap to say that he had never felt safer. Receiving affection from the woman he had grown to love, the softness of the sheets, and the resonating silence except for the brush of her skin against his hair that echoed in his ears.

Zelda continued these actions, hoping to lull the Champion into slumber, and when his jaw slackened and his mouth fell open a fraction, she knew he had fallen asleep. At this point, she had most definitely swept any hair that might have been falling in his face from his undoubtedly loose ponytail away, but she recalled fondly how nice it had been to fall asleep to her mother doing the same thing. 

It was incredible to her that such a rough and tumble person of such high skill in combat would ever allow themselves to fall so vulnerable to someone such as herself. Not that she was very dangerous, even if she could hold her own with a dagger, but having watched Link struggle through defeating Calamity Ganon, it was a wonder he had even an ounce of trust left in him.

It had broken her heart watching him get kicked, pinned, stabbed, and broken time and time again, thanking the goddesses that Mipha was able to heal him once and awhile even from her spirit form. But when that ability had been exhausted, and he had been left stumbling towards temporary shelter gripping a fresh wound that oozed blood, she had screamed and cried fruitlessly at the unfairness of it all.

When she had finally reunited with him, it was all she could do to try to keep him out of harm’s way. Of course, she did this to the best of her ability, but he was still her guard, after all. But he had never come so close to death as he had before, and by the gods, she would try to keep it that way. 

Perhaps it was selfish of her to limit such interactions that he might have had. It had crossed her mind that Link had trained all his life to be a royal guard, and took great pride in having accomplished all that he had. There was never a day that she saw him miss training unless it was absolutely essential, and sometimes she wondered if she was simply trying to restrain a beast chomping on its chain whenever they left the castle.

Because sometimes it was as if he was looking for something to scratch his combative itch. Link would always put her safety first, but whenever he saw a ragtag bunch of Bokoblins harassing passerby, he never missed the chance to cut them down.

Sometimes it was gruesome, and clearly he found it somewhat of a sport. It had scared her at first, especially when he had just been dubbed a Champion, but he had since gained respect for his life after losing it the first time, and was often much less careless.

Zelda hated that she had used that once in an argument, yelling at him for chasing down a Lynel for no other reason than because it was in front of him. He had come back bloody that day, but otherwise unharmed, and she had lost her temper. She had expected him to preach to her about how much better off the people would be now that the Lynel had been defeated, but instead he had looked her in her eyes, and for the first time she saw genuine fear. The Princess did not say anything more to him after he apologised.

But it was still hard to believe that sprawled out in front of her was that same daring person. Angelic-looking where he slept with his mouth ajar and his hands sprawled in front of him. It was like flipping a coin sometimes. One minute he could be the most fearsome animal tethered to an old, rusty chain, and the next a youth playing tag with the other children.

Her hand slowed its caresses, hoping to find sleep herself before the hour came that they should be awake. Zelda wiggled closer to the Champion and turned away from him until his breath fanned out across her face and her back pressed against his chest, and she smiled affectionately at his peaceful expression. She lifted his right arm to loop around her, and she laced her fingers in his own. Peace of mind was easy to come by when you were wrapped in the warm embrace of another, so it didn’t take long for the Princess to follow his suit, and fall asleep.

Only, it wasn’t long before she awoke again, clutched tightly in the arms of the sleeping man behind her. The first thing she noticed was how warm she was, and then as her eyes opened how very little the light had changed in her chambers. A lot of time could not have passed since she had fallen asleep. 

The second thing she noticed was that there was something off about Link behind her, and she berated herself for not feeling it before anything else through the cobwebs of sleep. Her body had been collected against him, and everything from her neck to the backs of her calves were pressed up against him. The Champion’s breath fanned across her head softly, but his arms held her in place with a strength she had only experienced a few times.

But behind her, pressed against her lower back, was something hard, and it only took her a moment to figure out just what it was. This was what had awakened her, it seemed, and she sharply sucked in a breath with the realization. Her entire body stilled, and Zelda’s face burned.

He was hard. Behind her, pressed up against her in his sleep, Link was hard. 

The Princess had heard of this before, though she had learnt that it was mostly seen in adolescents. Though, Link was still growing. Each year it seemed he put on another several centimeters to his height than before, and only a year after Calamity Ganon’s defeat he was already taller than Zelda by at least five.

Instead of recognizing the problem, she simply squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to go back to sleep than to face the embarrassment they both might experience should he wake up. She took this time to take a shaky glance at the clock, which read only five in the morning. Dread consumed her as she realized she was only asleep for thirty minutes, and she wondered briefly if she had accidentally instigated this when she decided to lay so close to him.

The last thing she wanted was for Link to feel ashamed for this, which he undoubtedly would if he were to wake now, so the Princess went against every fibre in her being that shouted that she stay still. His arms were the first obstacle, and she gently tugged at them to test how sturdy they were against her. Link’s grip was tight, but not tight enough that she couldn’t wiggle out of them. Whether or not she could do that without waking him was going to be a test of endurance, however.

Her fingers began wrapping around his right wrist, and pried them slowly off. At first she met resistance, and he buried his face into her hair behind her as his hand wrapped back around her protectively. She was hit with a burst of affection, but had to mentally slap and remind herself that she needed to remove herself from this situation before anything got strange. 

It wasn’t like she was uncomfortable with the situation. She recognized that this wasn’t something that he could help, and the Princess was honestly a little flattered. But it was also something that she knew he wouldn’t forgive himself for. “Overstepping” as he liked to call it. If she had not been told the evening prior that she might be fated to be married away like some object to someone of high importance, and they were instead like any normal couple, she might have been inclined to help him out of his situation even as he slept. But she also knew that the events of the other evening had deeply unsettled him as much as they did her, and the Princess was not willing to risk their relationship over something that could so easily be avoided.

The second obstacle was to disentangle her legs from his own. This in it of itself didn’t seem like such a daunting task, only it was in that his cloth-covered calves were keeping her in as much place as his arms were. 

She did her best to shift subtly. Really, she did. But when her leg shifted, her backside brushed against his length, and he suddenly froze. His breath hitched in his throat, and Zelda dared not move a muscle. Had he woken up, or had she just made this situation worse? They both lay there for several moments, neither daring to so much as breathe. 

“Link?” she whispered hesitantly, her voice caught in her throat.

The Champion suddenly pushed away from her, and if she could have seen through the darkness of the room, she would have seen an expression of panic on his face. He was on the shorter edge of the bed, and when he catapulted away from her by shoving himself in the opposite direction, he had miscalculated how much mattress was there to catch him. Link scrambled backwards, but found that there was no more bed behind him as his arm grasped at nothing, meeting cold air. There was a dull thud as he tumbled off the side, but still he managed to prioritize putting as much distance between himself and the Princess as he could.

“Are you okay?” She whispered loudly, her face still burning from the encounter.

The boy looked like he wanted to run, his scared blue eyes flitting between her and the door, but he stayed pressed against the wardrobe behind him looking much like a cornered animal.

The Princess felt guilt creep up her spine. Should she have just woken him up? He may have had the same flighty reaction if she had. Or maybe she should have just gone back to sleep, but that may have been crueler to him to pretend that nothing had happened.

His hand was moving in clockwise circular motions on his chest. _I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,_ he signed over and over again, hurriedly crossing his legs.

Zelda lifted the sheets from over her, cautiously moving towards him. He flinched when her feet met the cold floor of the chambers with a soft noise, and she paused briefly. 

“Can I come closer?” She asked carefully in a hushed voice, halting her movements until she received permission.

From here she could see his expression and his eyes, and they darted left and right nervously. The hand that had been signing his apologies had lifted to shield his face, but the tips of his ears were a shade darker than the rest of his skin. It took a very long ten seconds before he shakily nodded, inhaling and exhaling deeply as if to steel himself.

Her own face burned with her embarrassment, and partly to do with the situation as a whole. They had already done much of that which there was to do as a couple, going as far as medical journals that had guided their personal sexual education had described, but there was still much to experience. Like this, for example. This was an entirely new situation that neither really knew how to handle. So, just like Link always did, he was careful first, and confident later.

The Princess made very slow movements towards him, trying to keep a strong face as she approached. He had shrunk inwards on himself, as he normally did when he was uncomfortable, and she so desperately wanted to relieve him of his discomfort.

“Do you want me to stay?” She asked quietly.

 _These are your chambers, Zelda,_ he signed quickly, looking anywhere but her eyes.

“Then do you want me to help?” Zelda tried cautiously, gaging his reaction as best as she could.

The knight said nothing, his face growing ten shades darker. He sat there stiffly, unresponsive.

The Princess sighed, settling where she was directly in front of him. “Well, you have not made to run for the door yet and you have let me get this close. There is nothing here for you to feel ashamed for, and you have nothing to apologize for either,” she started, tilting her head to catch his eye.

Link’s head lowered, his gaze shifting to the ground, his hands clenched into fists in his lap.

“Please answer me this time,” the Princess whispered, reaching out tentatively to his face and brushing her knuckles against his jaw. “Can I help you?”

The Champion let out a whine so soft at her touch that she would have missed it if she had so much as breathed. His eyes shut tightly, his eyebrows furrowing deeply, but his head nodded just so slightly, and the Princess found herself basking in her victory.

However, as she set her sights to his lap, still guarded by his trembling fists, she felt her heartbeat skyrocket. She heard the blood begin to rush loudly through her ears, and she swallowed thickly as she gently caught his hands in her own. Link looked up quickly, meeting her eyes with a terribly pained expression, his jaw set rigidly.

“Come back to the bed,” Zelda said, “you will be more comfortable.”

The short trek back to the plush mattress was strangely awkward. Zelda kept her goal in mind, however, eager not to let this slip by. She led him by his hands until she could easily step back onto the mattress on her knees, and he followed shortly after, his bangs hanging loosely in his eyes, and his sights locked on the ground. 

As they settled, he found himself with his back against the headboard, and Zelda carefully climbed into his lap with his legs on either side of him. It was strange that now of all times Link was shy after having been bold so many times in the past, but she would be lying if the thought didn’t excite her a little.

But even so, she was just as nervous as he was, even if she wasn’t letting it show quite as obviously. The Champion’s hands were guided to her hips, where he rested them hesitantly as she began undoing his belt with nimble fingers. Beneath the fabric of his uniform, she could still feel his length’s defined shape through all his layers, and she carefully pushed aside the decorative cloth that hung beneath his belt as it was clipped open. 

Link’s breath hitched as it came off, his eyes clenching as he gently squeezed her hips with his hand. Zelda used her left hand to lift his chin as his eyes fluttered back open, his gaze that was growing heavy with her movements meeting her own slightly flustered one. A surge of arousal hit the Princess hard, and she shuddered as she traced his shape through his trousers.

Link hissed, the back of his head hitting the headboard with a soft sound. 

“Shh,” she whispered, reaching down to unbutton the uniform. The Princess could feel his pulse faintly as it thundered through his veins. She basked in the pride she felt that she was able to reduce the great Hylian Hero to what sat in front of her now. It made lust gather in her eyes, matching the foggy expression Link was wearing.

As the button popped open there was only his underwear left to peel back, but the Princess paused before she leapt right in. She leaned forward, capturing his lips in a kiss as she ran a finger over his length through the cloth. It jumped, and Link grunted into her mouth as her tongue ran circles around his, his hips flexing forwards under her weight at her touch. 

She took her time to revel in this rare moment for her to thoroughly explore, never having had this freedom in their normal desperate encounters. For the first time, she had her tongue in his mouth, which was already a victory of some sort on her end. She wasn’t sure what she expected to be different, but she wasn’t disappointed in any case. The inside of his mouth was just as soft as hers, if not a little warmer. The ridges along the roof of his mouth were different in pattern, though, and she took her time as she traced each dip and swell of the gum.

Meanwhile, the pad of her index finger ran along the underside of the engorged member, stopping briefly to circle his tip softly as he twitched under her touch. Every once in a while he would moan or make a desperate noise that reverberated in his chest, and he would grip her at her hips all the tighter. She knew she had done something especially right if he separated from the kiss to gasp in lungfuls of air.

There was a small wet spot at the tip that the Princess didn’t need to look down to know was there, because everytime she went to swipe her finger across the slit, she could feel the damp fabric. It made her hunger for more than just this, and she knew from the way the boy would try to jerk further into her grasp that he was desperate for more than just touches through the fabric.

So, finally, she peeled back the hem, and he groaned into her mouth as she slipped her hand inside to hold him fully in her palm. The organ jumped at the contact, leaking from its tip as Link’s abdomen went fully rigid. 

“Tell me if you want me to stop,” she breathed, meeting the Champion’s scalding gaze with one of her own. “Just tap three times.”

He nodded enthusiastically, his breathing terribly labored as he held himself back from fucking into her palm. Link would be lying if this hadn’t excited him thoroughly at this point. At first he had been mortified that he had ever woken up hard against someone as esteemed as the Princess, and a small part of him still was. He hadn’t done this since he was a teenager, and realizing that not only was it happening to him at this age still, but also up against your partner for the first time was, frankly, terrifying.

But with her in his lap, her hand wrapped around him sweetly, and her mouth on his own, he was completely gone. There was something inherently arousing about the Princess, in all her typically shy demeanor, taking charge so suddenly, and there was an intense feeling of pleasure that came with how powerless he felt under her. But there was also something deep inside of him that wanted to flip them over and simply take. There was no way he would ever let that happen, though. Besides, he was curious what she would do now that she was given loose reins to do as she pleased.

Link let out a strangled gasp in an attempt to keep quiet as she began moving her hand, his brow furrowing as he was overwhelmed by the sensation. His head hit the backboard once again, and the searing heat of her mouth against the skin of his throat made him hiccup. Her tongue leapt out, licking and sucking small marks where they wouldn’t be seen under his collar as her fingers traced the throbbing vein that ran up the underside of his length. Zelda’s hand twisted on the upstrokes, something she had learnt he liked in the cave, and Link tried hard not to make noise as her grip tightened when she sank back down.

But suddenly her hand stopped moving, and he uselessly chased her touch with a weak buck of his hips and a whine that escaped his throat as she detached from him. His mind was cloudy, and his eyelids felt heavy as he stared at her half-lidded as she asked, “Can I try something?”

Maybe he looked stupid how eagerly he nodded his head, licking his suddenly dry lips as she carefully removed herself from his lap. Zelda directed his knees bent and out to the side, open enough to make room for where she settled. Only she was now on her stomach, supported by her elbows and eye-level with his member.

Link was about to sign something about not overdoing it, but his hands flew to her hair instead as she stuck out her tongue and lapped a long stripe up his length without warning. This time he wasn’t able to hold back the sound he made, and he cursed himself inwardly as the girl below him giggled quietly. Empowered by his reaction, the Princess continued to kitten-lick him in front of her, watching him through her eyelashes as she did. His gaze was impossible to break, and he fisted his fingers into her hair as he let his knees fall while keeping his legs open. With every experimental motion of the Princess’s mouth against his length, Link found it harder and harder to hold on. He knew that normally he might be able to hold on longer than this, but this was a whole new sensation as the sand-papery texture of her tongue rubbed against his shaft. 

Satisfied with her exploration for now, Zelda locked eyes with him as she reached her right hand out to grip him at his base, and before he could ask her what she was doing, she took his tip into her mouth and closed her lips around him. Link coughed out a moan, his abs tensing violently as his hips weakly flexed. He panted with the effort to hold on, but he didn’t want this to end so quickly.

When she suckled experimentally at the tip, he tried to relax as best as he could under such immense pleasure, leaning back against the headboard and closing his eyes. When her tongue poked at his slit and began mimicking the circles Zelda had run with her fingers over the head, the muscles in his thighs spasmed pleasantly as the knot in his belly tightened dangerously.

He tapped her head quickly, making sure that he did not exceed three taps, and he lifted his hands from her hair. When she detached, he shivered, his hands barely forming the words, _I am not going to last._

The Princess smiled, her grin somewhat teasing as it spread across her features. “One tap to tell me you are close, two to tell me that you are there, and three for me to stop. Okay?” 

Link swallowed thickly, nodded as he replaced his hands in her hair. She hummed at the feeling, and her palm slid against his shaft lazily as he shuddered violently at the feeling. Then, Zelda’s head ducked back down, licking along his length again before taking the tip into her mouth once more. Link tensed his abs, grasping onto every thread left of his self restraint that kept him from thrusting wildly into her mouth to completion. But her pace was torturously slow, and Link knew it was just because she wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing, but gods he was starting to feel desperate for release. 

She sucked just the tip, and for as many stars as he saw with just that, his jaw fell open and he whined lowly, his hands clutching onto her golden locks. Zelda flicked her gaze back at him through her long eyelashes, but Link had his eyes closed, focusing entirely on staving off the impending orgasm he felt building.

Suddenly she swooped down, taking about half of him into her mouth as her hand gently stroked his base. Link choked on the noise he made, dying in his throat and he simply let out a wheeze. Her mouth was hot, and tight, and even though it couldn’t compare to the soft warmth of her inner walls, it was damn near close. He tapped her head once, controlling himself from tapping repeatedly in case she took that as one of their other signals. His abs ached from tensing as much as they were, and for as much as the Champion wanted to reach completion, he also wanted this to last. 

The Princess suckled gently, using her tongue to flatten against his length as she worked the rest of him with her palm. Each sound that left the hero made her squirm, wishing she could rub her legs together to find some sort of relief herself as she edged him closer and closer to orgasm. She could feel her own nethers throbbing with need as she toyed with his member in her mouth.

Another tap against her head encouraged her to change things up, opting to bob her head slightly as she worked her palm. The sounds that left his throat as she did this increased in pitch the longer she continued, and Link tapped once again. His jaw was hanging open now, but from the repeated gasps of air he would suck in, she could tell he had blocked his airway for the most part to keep himself silent.

When she utilized her tongue, sinking down onto him for a final time to hollow her cheeks, Link’s grip tightened dramatically in her hair to the point where it was almost painful. The Princess moaned around his length, and the vibrations rocked the boy beneath her to his utmost core. A flurry of taps signalled her to stop, and she flew off of him as he panted harshly beneath her. Before she could ask what she had done wrong, his right hand flew to his member, and he leaned forward to moan brokenly into her ear as he finished himself off. His hips flexed in his hand as he pumped himself, and it only took a few seconds before ribbons of cum spat out of his tip. 

Quickly she wrapped his hand around his own, helping as much as she could as he rode out his orgasm with a few more final pulls. His hand began to tremble as the last dribbles of cum dripped down his head, and he whimpered when her palm didn’t stop moving. He squirmed away from the touch with something of a quiet yelp, and he snatched her wrist quickly.

“S-sorry,” Zelda stammered, completely overtaken with arousal from watching him finish himself.

Link lurched forward, pulling her up and on him where he kissed her sloppily with an open mouth. Zelda hummed as he wandered down the column of her neck, revisiting where he had left marks the night before. They were a little bruised over now, and they sent small sparks of pleasure and pain down her spine with every pass of his tongue. Quickly, she was flipped, and suddenly he had her pinned to the mattress with his hands at her wrists.

Wide-eyed, she met his blue eyes with a gasp, shuddering at their intensity as he ducked back down to continue his earlier endeavors. Her thighs pressed together, wiggling in small movements to find any sort of relief. This was halted, however, when one of Link’s knees nudged her legs open, inserting itself between them just above her knees. 

Zelda’s arms, locked around his chest clutched against the dark fabric of his uniform, tugging at it weakly as her face twisted with pleasure. “Take it off,” she gasped as he nipped at an old mark, “please.”

She had meant for him to remove his shirt so she could feel the heat of his body against her palms, but he instead sat up only for a moment to shuck her nightgown over her head. He wasted no time in filling his right palm with her breast, and even through the thin layer of her brassiere she could feel the pads of his fingers digging in. The white leather of his gloves against her skin felt unusual, so when he relented for the briefest of moments she took the opportunity to grab his wrist and pull it off. He got the memo after the first was ripped from him, and the second quickly followed suit. Within a few seconds he was back on her, and she whimpered at his grip.

Seemingly satisfied with his work in renewing her marks, he dragged his mouth to her sternum as he pulled at the brassiere. It was yanked down just below her breasts, and he glanced up at her through clouded eyes to ensure there was no protest in them. Deep in the sea green of her soul, she could only meet his heated gaze, her lungs sucking in breath greedily.

Her hands fisted into his hair, effectively undoing his already loose tie that held his hair in its typical ponytail, and it fell against the shoulderpads of his uniform softly. Link ducked down, bracing himself on his elbows by her sides to breathe her in. The Princess shivered, hyper aware of how strands of dirty blond hair tickled her skin as they brushed against her skin. 

Zelda once again pulled at his uniform after allowing her hands to travel down his strong back, whispering directly into his ear, “Off,” once more.

Link shifted his weight backwards, pulling himself onto his knees to pull uselessly against anything that held his shirt on his body. Several buckles were undone with fingers that shook with anticipation, and the Princess tried desperately to find anything else that she could help him with. Apparently his top came in pieces, and it far too long to undo. It didn’t help that there were so many layers, and Zelda clicked her tongue in annoyance when the blue fabric of the uniform fell, but was still met with a red shirt beneath it. 

Their hands were frenzied, blood still rushing through their ears and endorphins still pumping through their veins. This caused their fingers to lose their effectiveness, and they fumbled with buckles and snaps as it slowly fell to the ground. 

All the while, they desperately sought the other’s mouth, devouring each other as they blindly tried to remove the offending fabric that prevented them from being as close as they so desired. His tongue was now in her mouth, overtaking her senses and ceasing all thought as they broke for air only to dive hungrily back in. 

The moisture between her legs only grew, and she adjusted herself so that she might rub herself against his thigh. As she did this, the Princess’s heat throbbed at the knowledge that Link had once again hardened above her. When finally his shirt fell, and his skin was bared to her, the Princess greedily laid hot palms against his chest while he bowed his head to her breasts. Zelda was pushed back to the mattress, the Champion climbing properly over her as he squeezed with rough palms. She couldn’t help but release a moan when his mouth closed over her right nipple, and her hands jerked to where his member hung from his open pants.

But as soon as she took hold of him, his right hand leapt from her breast to grab her wrists, once again pinning them above her head. She so desperately wanted to touch him, but her protest of his actions died in her throat as his unoccupied hand raked down her body to her hips. 

Link’s scarred skin against her own left searing heat behind, and her thighs trembled as the pads of his fingers paused on the top of her soft thighs. Link licked her rosy nipple once more before detaching, relishing in the gasp of his name that was coaxed from her throat as he did. 

He looked down at the Princess, and drank in the sight. Her back was arched, her golden hair haloed around her head, her eyes foggy with lust, and her arms pinned above her head. The Champion’s resolve had never been tested like this before. She looked like the perfect meal. The perfect prey. 

And he had caught her. 

Every ounce of his self control was being held by the thinnest of strings, but it was easy to remind himself that he would never do anything she didn’t want. This clarity was the question he held in his eyes as he bore into her own, mouth agape and panting in tandem with her own breaths. An ache had settled in his loins - something he hadn’t expected to develop after already finishing. But there it was, and he groaned lowly at the artwork in front of him, his member twitching.

“Please,” Zelda begged. “Do not stop.”

His left hand smoothed over the expanse of the soft skin of her thigh, catching the hem of her underwear as he looked into her eyes once again. His thumb stroked her reassuredly, but made no move to continue.

“Damn you, Link, I said not to stop,” she whined, her hips wiggling in his touch. 

But it was the trembling of her lower half that stopped the Champion, and he leaned down to capture her lips. Zelda reciprocated as soon as they met, pushing against him as her back arched. Her breasts were briefly pressed against his chest, and he groaned into their connection. As she melted into his touch, her tremors ceased, and his fingers finally wrapped themselves around her undergarments to pull down. The flimsy fabric slipped easily down her legs, and she lifted her hips and her knees to help where she could, finally kicking them off when they reached her ankles. 

Link’s hips were suddenly dragged down by her weight as she curled her thighs around them, and he grunted softly when she brushed against his length. His left hand found itself just on her navel, and he dragged it slowly down as Zelda’s breath hit his face. He passed her soft curls, immediately flicking a finger over her clit. 

“Link!” She cried, hushed by his lips as they sealed over hers again. In the back of the Champion’s mind he knew they were being a little loud for a couple that was hiding their relationship, but it was hard to focus when the girl beneath him was reacting in such a way. It brought him endless gratification each time she breathed his name, especially in times like these. His ego was stroked each time it fell from her lips, and it only made him want to make her say it all over again as soon as it was over.

Zelda whimpered as he prodded at her entrance with rough fingers, only to turn her head into his neck and whine when he finally sunk one in easily. Link met very little resistance, marvelling at how much natural lubrication she had produced in this short time. As he dipped into her knuckle-deep, he felt her velvety walls close around him, and he groaned as his member reacted. 

His name was chanted like a mantra as he added another finger, squirming at the sparks of pleasure that were shot up her spine and caused her to arch like a bow. His left hand may have been non-dominant, but the erratism of the movements of his non-dominant fingers was a whole experience of its own. The twitchy movements as he pulled out his fingers from her caused them to brush upwards, and her breath caught in her throat with every small movement.

Her belly began to tighten, and Link grasped onto all of his resolve as if it were his only lifeline. The Princess begged him to add another, and who was he to deny his princess anything? When he did, her legs tightened around his hips, panting hotly into his ear. Her wrists twitched as her southern nerves were all fired off simultaneously, and his rough palms against them only heightened the sensation. 

Link clenched his eyes shut, focusing on the slightly salty tang to the taste of her skin as he laved against the column of her throat, but his self restraint was becoming thinner and thinner by the second. With every noise she made, she chipped away at the already slender wall that stopped him from being rougher than she would probably like. With every call of his name, Link had to work harder to stave off the ache from being hard for so long and remind himself that she had to be put first right now.

But when her walls clamped down onto his three fingers, and her body seized against his with a silent scream, it was all he could do to shuck his boots and his pants as quickly as he could. The Champion gripped himself at his base, hissing at how good even that felt, and guided his length towards her opening. 

The Princess had regained consciousness from her orgasm for all of a few seconds before she was suddenly invaded all over again, and her mouth fell open into a strangled moan as he pushed in. Her hands flew from his grasp to his bare back, sinking her nails into his shoulder blades where she had the night before. 

“Oh gods, Link,” Zelda gasped as the boy groaned into her neck as he slowly pushed in. The overwhelming sensation of fullness pulled all the oxygen out of her body, and her hands scrambled for any sort of purchase against his back as he passed the halfway mark. 

Her walls fluttered against the Champion’s shaft, and he trembled with the effort it took not to finish this in one swift thrust. It was nearly impossible to hold himself back, his jaw locked and his teeth gritting together as her hips made grinding motions that pushed him further inside. Link moaned brokenly when she clamped down particularly hard, both hands now bracing himself from crushing her beneath him with tight fists. 

She was stiflingly hot. Squeezing and sucking him into her like a vortex. Without bottoming out, the Champion couldn’t pull back out even if he wanted to, but he was almost there. Just a few more inches.

Zelda’s eyes watered as all thought left her well behind, nothing to do but hold on as he continued his descent. With every small motion, pleasure stabbed through her body, and she did her best to meet his hips. 

Finally she felt his balls hit her, and she gasped at the sensation. Above her, Link trembled violently, every muscle flexed as he panted into her neck. It was scary how little she could think at this point, a single overwhelmed tear slipping down her cheek. She was grateful that her face couldn’t be seen.

The Princess was appreciative of the several moments that it took to adjust, making small noises into his shoulder as her legs tightened around him. And finally when the discomfort ebbed, and she was hit with a wave of pleasure when her hips shifted beneath him, she used her voice.

“Move.”

That was all the motivation he needed, releasing a very long, shuddering groan into where he had shoved his face while his hips slowly retracted. The way that her walls clung to him in such a vice-like matter prompted him to thrust back in slowly after only retreating halfway. Both moaned in unison at the plunge, Zelda scratching at his back as if it were the only thing tethering her to reality. Link’s expression furrowed with concentration, only broken by the sound of his name leaving the Princess’s mouth lowly.

His hands, which were braced at her sides, moved up so that he could hold himself over her on his elbows as he sat up only slightly so he could cup each side of her face. Her skin was blushed a fine pink color that he could now see through the light that reflected off the waters and through their window. Her brows were knotted, but her eyes were watery and clouded in a way that greatly pleased the Champion. 

With each scrape of her nails against Link’s back, and every upward effort Zelda made to match his thrusts, it was all he could do to delve in deeper with every piston of his hips. His pace increased gradually, chasing a high that seemed so close yet so far out of his reach. The Princess, in her own frenzy to find release for the second time, met his forward motions with equal fervor, desperately seeking his lips to stop her from floating away. 

He crashed into her with an emergent passion, but it was all tongue and teeth without direction. Neither cared, though, because each time Link fully bottomed out inside of her, time momentarily stopped, only for him to pull out almost fully and thrust home all over again. Sweat gathered on the Champion’s neck, matting his hair to his skin and rolling down the column of his throat. Below him, Zelda feld it bead against her forehead, and create a thin sheen across the expanse of her chest. Especially under her brassiere, which had never been removed properly. The Princess was too far gone to take notice, though, instead clinging to him as much as she could with every crude slap of skin on skin rang out in her chambers. 

The air had been saturated with the smell of sex and sweat, the temperature rising significantly as bodyheat rushed out of the two’s bodies. But the atmosphere in the room was completely still. There was no cooling system in an underground lodging area such as this, so instead of cooling down, the humidity simply sat heavily in the air.

Zelda felt too hot. Everything was too hot. She felt like her insides were boiling, but in only made her feel dizzier than she already did. Her mind had wandered away from her. The Princess couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. All she could do was hold tighter onto the man above her as he pistoned into her as she moaned brokenly with every fraction of a movement. 

Her toes were starting to curl, the spring in her belly wound so tightly like before that she knew was going to burst at any second. But it didn’t matter how much Link sped up or deepened his movements, the precipice of that enticing edge was tantalizingly out of her reach. 

“Link, more,” she breathed into his ear, and the Champion grunted as his movements became erratic.

His thrusts were no longer even, controlled movements, but instead desperate attempts to push further than he was physically capable. They were spasmic and poorly timed, and he quickly shifted all his weight onto his right arm to reach down with his left hand and swipe mercilessly at the sensitive nub above where they were joined.

The Princess’s body went rigid, and Link slapped a hand over her mouth as she let out a wail. Her walls clamped tightly around him, and the Champion’s hips stuttered violently, his pace completely ruined. Link wanted to keep going, to watch her come undone again and again, but his own impending release was too close to be ignored. He tensed his abdomen, staving off his orgasm with every ounce of willpower he had left, but as he brokenly tried to regain his momentum, the pleasure washed over him too quickly. 

Link had a small panic attack at first, realizing he hadn’t yet pulled out, and he yanked out of her just in time. He lifted his arm and bit into his skin as he let out a loud groan. His length twitched with dissatisfaction having left the tight warmth of the Princess’s sex, and only managed a few shots of cum that landed on her navel before exhaustion consumed him.

He used what little strength he still possessed to push himself to the side before he collapsed onto the Princess, heaving deeply while the girl beside him twitched as the last weak waves of pleasure washed over her. 

When Zelda regained full consciousness, she suddenly felt gross. The sheets beneath her were wet with their sweat, and the Champion’s cum was quickly cooling on her belly. She turned her head to her partner beside her, seeking his eyes.

He had them clenched tightly shut, panting as he tried to regain his breath. His long hair was sticking to his damp skin, and he pushed a hand through his bangs to get rid of what stuck to his forehead. The shorter strands, sticky with moisture, stood up as his hand pulled back, and the Princess laughed softly between her own efforts to reoxygenate her body. 

Link’s eyes opened tiredly, his face splitting into a grin of his own as he chuckled.

“Can you get something to clean us up?” Zelda whispered. “I cannot imagine I can walk like this.”

Link grunted in reply, moving over to kiss her on the forehead before moving to get up. When he had pushed himself off the mattress, the Princess could not help but admire the muscles that Link had developed. Unlike right after they had defeated Calamity Ganon, the boy stood almost six inches taller and twice as broad. From all the training he did, his back was littered with definition, and she remembered tracing her fingers through them in the cave. Her face colored when she noticed the angry red lines left behind from her fingernails, and also the litany of teeth marks on the junction between his neck and his shoulder.

But most of all, she liked the way he walked. He had always carried with him a sort of confidence that she had yet to see matched in anyone else. In his gait there was a challenge - a dare to try and get away with something. 

But her admiration was halted abruptly by the deep burn scar on the back of his thigh. It was the same one he had gotten fighting the Guardian before he had died. The one he had gotten protecting her. Again. 

It was strangely deep, as if flesh had actually been lost in the beam of heat and power that had struck him there, and the scar was mangled and twisted in an ugly way. The skin was discolored in some places, raised in others, and dove everywhere else. It was unlikely that he had ever had a proper look at it, as it was so awkwardly situated on his body, but even if he had it didn’t seem to be anything he paid much attention to by the confidence in his gait.

Zelda wondered briefly if Link wore his scars like trophies like many warriors did. Reminders that they had survived a battle or a mortal wound. But could that be true of him when he technically hadn’t? Because that was the case, wasn’t it? He hadn’t survived it. He had died in the Princess’s arms as she wept. She had felt his skin grow cold and pale, and felt his last breath die in his lungs along with his soul.

So really, what did he think of the scars he carried with him?

She pondered this while Link disappeared into the adjoined bathroom to find a cloth to clean themselves with. The Princess wondered if it was really worth dirtying the cloth when really they would probably both need to bathe. 

When he vanished from her view, she turned her head to check the clock. It was six thirty now. People had begun to stir half an hour ago. Panic settled in her veins when she realized how loud they had been. The doors could be heard through to anyone paying enough attention. Could they have been heard?

Her heart rate sped up as she anxiously chewed on her lip at the thought. Who actually knew where the Princess was staying? Would anyone else in the lodgings really be disclosed that information outside of her party? Then again, Riju and Sidon also knew, but she supposed they only knew that since they were also important residents of the establishment. In the event that they were heard, the best case scenario was that the other residents were not aware that these were the Princess’s chambers, and that it was just a normal couple making a ruckus. The worst case scenario was that the posse of Hylian guardsmen just down the hall had awoken and passed through the corridor to hear their Princess roughing it in the sheets with someone they didn’t know.

As she began concocting excuses to make for such noises that may have leaked through into the hallway, Link reappeared from the adjoined washroom, a wet cloth in hand. When he saw her worried expression, he frowned. 

_What is wrong?_ He signed, tucking the cloth between his bicep and his side.

“Just- what if someone heard us?” Zelda relented quietly, grabbing at some sheets to recover a bit of modesty.

 _I doubt anyone would go sticking their nose into royal affairs even if they did,_ he reasoned, snagging his underwear off the floor and pausing briefly to pull them up around his waist. 

“But you are not in your chambers,” she whispered. “What if they put it together?”

Link scratched his head as he held the cloth and gently began wiping her down. He took a moment to place it to the side to answer though, after giving it some thought. _You think the other guardsmen know?_

The Princess nodded anxiously.

_I can tell you now that it is rather unlikely that they would be going into my chambers at all. The only people to have entered them so far have been you, Sidon, and Riju._

“What about the people that clean? Do they not tidy up your room each day like they do mine?”

Link shook his head. _My bed has been left unmade since we arrived._

She chewed her lip, breaking eye contact. “Sorry, I- I’m just a little worried is all,” she said dismissively.

Link looked down briefly, finishing wiping off the sweat and cum from the girl in front of her. When he was done, he folded the cloth, and laid his left hand on her shoulder. When she turned to him, he signed, _I will protect you if it comes to it._

The Princess’s eyes watered, but they dispersed quickly with a shake of her head. Instead, she smiled at him softly, her eyes closing tiredly as she did. “You always take care of me,” she breathed.

Link blushed at his ears, affection overwhelming him. His left hand moved from her shoulder to cup her cheek softly, feeling as if he held the entire world in his palm.

“But Link,” she continued, opening her eyes, “we are probably going to need more than a wiping down.”

The Champion blew out air before breaking into restrained chuckles, shifting around behind her to undo the laces that held together her brassiere.

“H-hey!” The Princess gasped, bringing up the sheets to cover her now completely exposed body. “What do you think you are doing?”

He gave her a strange look, cocking an eyebrow. _Are you not the one that suggested we bathe?_ Link signed.

“Yes, well, I can very much undress myself, thank you!” She finished weakly, her face red. She wrapped the silky fabric around herself as she moved off of the mattress, slipping her legs over the side and finding ground. But as her legs pushed her to stand, she stumbled to the ground, waving her arms frantically.

Link watched her in shock for a moment before leaping towards the end of the bed to check if she was alright. Zelda looked up at him with a pitiful expression, embarrassment causing her skin to turn even redder.

“I-” she began, cutting herself off to look dejectedly at the floor, “I can not, um, stand.”

Link only stared, wide-eyed until amusement and pride struck his face.

“I know what you are thinking, and it is positively vile!” Zelda hissed as the Champion laughed. “Come on, stop! Help me up already.”

The Champion’s laughter died down, and he slipped off the end of the bed. She expected him to maybe hold her up by her side, but she was instead swept up from the ground into his arms as he carried them into the washroom. She squeaked when he had lifted her, and she clutched the sheets to herself as best as she could, but her modesty was already completely shattered when one of the arms supporting her was wrapped around her thighs and chest.

The washroom, having vents that connected to heat shafts from deep underground, was steamy and warm, and it reminded her of how she felt as he had moved inside of her. She chased the thought out of her mind before it could make a home, however, and Link gently placed her on one of the little stools. He took the sheet out of her hand, turning around respectfully when she was left completely nude.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, keeping her arms crossed against her chest even though she knew he would not try to peak. It struck her that her actions were ironic, seeing as though he had had his mouth and hands on the very chest she was hiding not even an hour ago, but something about the vulnerability of the situation made her feel like it was necessary.

A few pails of water were set up over the heat vents, bars of soap and washcloths to their sides. She grabbed one of each, then glanced at the knight behind her. He sat stiller than the night, legs crossed on the damp floor even in his underwear. His arms were also crossed over his chest, but in less of an embarrassed manner as the princess was doing, and more in a focused one.

Zelda looked down at the materials in her hands, then sighed softly as she moved towards her guard. “Do not turn around,” she warned, her voice carrying no threat, however.

She set them down gently next to him, and the man shifted. His head turned to the side, looking at what was placed next to him when the Princess whacked him over the head with her palm.

“I said not to turn around!” She hissed, blushing from her head down to her chest.

Link lurched forward with the strike, clutching the fresh bump with his hands and rubbing at it dramatically.

 _Warn a guy!_ He signed quickly over his head, huffing as he snatched the cloth and soap as he stripped his underwear off for the second time.

“Sorry!” Zelda added quickly with the same scolding tone, turning away indignantly as she sat back down at her stool and began lathering her skin with soap.

It was quiet for a few minutes, but the Princess couldn’t help but turn around as she heard him dump the bucket over his head, concluding his bath. It wasn’t very often that she got to see his hair completely down like this, but now that she could, she eyed it curiously. Its color was a typical dirty blond - darker than her own, but it was a richer color now that it had been soaked through, something she hadn’t noticed when he had jumped into the hot spring the other day. It reached just at his shoulders, and she remembered cutting it carefully so it was as even as possible. She concluded that she had done a good job, satisfied with the evenness of its edges.

Suddenly, Link’s hands lifted above his head. _So you get to look, but I can’t?_

Zelda stuck her tongue out at him with a sound effect to make sure he understood what she was doing. “I am just admiring how great a job I did at cutting your hair,” she groused, turning back around.

If he said something else, she didn’t see it, and she finally lathered her face before blindly groping for the bucket and dumping it over her head. She shook her head free of excess water, wiping her eyes with slippery hands in case she had missed anything with the douse. 

Link’s eyebrow twitched. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to leave like this, and it occurred to him that he didn’t have a change of clothes. Seeing as though he almost never wore his uniform, it would be strange to anyone who knew him to see him in it two days in a row. Especially when he didn’t need to be wearing it. The Champion supposed he could try a window route again, but climbing stark naked onto a balcony or a steep terrace sounded less than ideal. 

If worse came to worse, he could just book it down the hallway. Their rooms’ doors weren’t that far apart. Getting the heavy things to move, though took a second, and if anyone happened to be traversing the hallways at the same, they would be met with a very unpleasant sight. But if he was quick, he should be fine, and as gross as his uniform currently was, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to just slip into it for no more than the trip back to his chambers.

“Thank you,” came a small voice behind him. 

With ears as sensitive as his, it was impossible to miss, and Link was tempted to disobey his order and turn around to meet the Princess’s gaze as he spoke to him. His eyes widened, though, his heart slowing as if in anticipation of what she would say next.

“For everything,” Zelda continued softly. 

Link wanted to rush around and hug her, reassure her that he wasn’t just doing this because he had to, but also because he wanted to, but he held his place.

“You always take care of me, even if I do not always treat you fairly. Like when I was cornered by the Yiga clan, and when I yelled at you for following me to the shrine that time, and-” she stopped herself, and a sharp intake of breath followed. “And when- when you stopped that Guardian from hitting me.”

The Champion’s hands gripped his arms tightly, remembering bitterly the searing pain that had followed the beam that creature had shot from its eye. A phantom pain washed over the back of his leg, and he grit his teeth as he willed it to go away.

“Even now.” Her voice wavered only slightly, a sad tone that made his body grow cold. “Just, well, thank you.”

Link hummed reassuringly in response, not knowing whether or not he should try to sign his acknowledgement in case she wasn’t looking. 

“Okay,” Zelda resolved, the sound of the stool being pushed back vibrating through the room. “Let us get you out of here.”

Link stood, snatching up his boxers and slipping them on, but made no effort to turn around for fear of another strike.

“Oh! Sorry, you can turn now. Just, um, try not to look?”

He wondered why she was being bashful after doing what they had just done to need a bath in the first place, but he would never disobey her, so he instead kept his gaze fixed on the entrance while he held out his left hand behind him.

Delicate fingers smoothed into his palm, and he wrapped his own around her as he led them out of the washroom. There, he reluctantly slipped his guard’s uniform loosely back on, sneering in disgust at the damp-retaining fabric as it clung to his skin. He foresaked a few buckles and clasps in favor of getting out of the material as quickly as possible when he got to his room while the Princess changed into her typical garb. 

When both were presentable enough, the Princess shushed him as they approached the door, even though he wasn’t making noise to begin with. In fact, it was a little scary how silently he moved when he really wanted to, even with the Master Sword slung across his back. 

Zelda pushed her ear up against the door first, but no footsteps resounded. Then she slowly opened the door, and poked her head out, checking both directions of the hallway. Again, she was met with silence, and she paused for a moment before beckoning behind her with a hand. Link’s head checked next, his ears a little more trained than her own to figure out if there was danger nearby, but as soon as he was satisfied, he cast her a lasting grin as he swung out of the door and ran off down the corridor to his own room. She followed his eyes until they were out of eyeshot, and the Princess giggled at his high spirits. 

The rest of the preparations she made were trivial things, but were dear to her heart nonetheless. Things like her blue clips that lived on either side of her bangs that held her hair back, and her novelty braids that framed her face and disappeared behind her ears. 

But as she tucked a few loose strands away, her hand drifted down to her hair. She had expressed to Link that she wanted it to be cut - and for as true as that was, she was also a little reluctant. This was the only thing that truly hadn’t changed since Calamity Ganon. Her Kingdom was born anew, new generations walked the Hyrule soil, and even few people who were still alive one hundred years ago seemed completely different. Her hair length was all that remained. And her sense of style, she supposed lightheartedly. 

The Princess picked up a brush, running it through her long, straight blonde locks gently. Her hair was naturally easy to manage, even for its length. Rarely ever did she find it tangled, and she thanked Hylia for the small blessing. 

It seemed only appropriate, though, that things change after everything they had been through. Zelda worried that she might find it melancholic if her hair were to be cropped, but it was natural that she moved on, wasn’t it? That was the whole point of healing. Moving on. In a way, it kept her from doing that, and she wondered if anything other than her looks would change if she free herself of the reminder of one hundred years ago. 

Unfortunately, she had left her scissors in Link’s chambers, and she wasn’t about to cut her own hair blindly on such a whim anyway. She wanted to think it through fully before she made such a change, and she definitely didn’t want to regret it after she did. Cutting it in the spur of the moment may cause her to wish she hadn’t later, so it was best that she take time not to do anything rash.

A chorus of raps against her door pulled her from her thoughts, and she pulled her gloves on as she quickly walked towards the door to pull it open. In front of her was her guard, dressed in his Champion’s Tunic as he typically did. The Sheikah Slate hung from his belt at his left hip, and the Master Sword rested against his back. He looked exactly as he did every day, but Zelda felt a wave of fondness wash over her at the sight. 

_What shall we do today?_ He signed, smiling at her.

“I am not sure,” the Princess responded, shuffling out the doorway and pulling it shut behind her. “With the meeting out of the way and a coronation to plan, I suppose we should be making our way out of Zora’s Domain rather soon.”

 _When would you like to leave?_ I can make arrangements ahead of time. 

“Would today be too soon? Not that we need to rush out of here as soon as possible, but quite frankly after the meeting yesterday, I do not want to stick around for longer than I have to. Perhaps we could leave midday.”

We would be better off leaving in the morning tomorrow, but if that is what you wish, I will talk to the stablemen and the guards that came with us. I also need to send of Hoz and thank him for coming.

Zelda snickered. “He did not see a lot of action, did he?”

Link sighed, looking guilty. _I apologized last night before we were summoned to the gathering, but I feel like it was not enough._

“I am sure he understands,” she reasoned, smiling at him as they walked. “How did you meet him again? It was before you defeated Calamity Ganon, right?”

The Champion nodded. _He was stationed at the Akkala Stable. When I first passed through I asked him for directions, and after giving them to me warned me of a suspicious character that had been scaring folk in the night. I wanted to help, so I asked him what I could do, and he told me to try and get a picture of him._

“And did you?”

 _Yes. Kilton was rather suspicious of the Slate at first, though. He thought it was a rare Guardian part that he had never seen before, and tried to buy it off of me._ He chuckled at the memory.

“Kilton? The, um, the man who travels from village to village at night in his ghastly little monster shop? Oh, what did he call it?”

 _Fang and Bone,_ he signed. _And yes, that was him. Hoz let the witch hunt go after I convinced him that he was of no danger to travelers or village-goers._

“I do not think I have ever properly met him,” Zelda hummed.

_He is a strange character, but he has good intentions. I worry about his business’s own currency of Mons. It is not very good for the economy._

“As long as it is contained to his shop only, I am sure it will be fine,” the Princess said as they stepped out of the lodgings and into the plaza. 

Several Zora were already awake and bustling around, children whooping and cheering as they chased each other around the streets. When one bumped into a guard, he called after them with chastisements about being more careful while they ran off with the rest of their friends. 

“Such a carefree place.” Her heart was warmed that Zora’s Domain had recovered so well after Vah Ruta’s neverending rainstorm. The people were lively and loud, as all of the subjects of Hyrule should be. 

_Thanks to you,_ Zelda. Link smiled, pointing at her.

“To both of us,” she concluded happily, walking close enough to him that her arm would brush against his once in a while. 

The Princess looked around again, watching a Zoran woman and her child walk out of Marot Mart with a basket full of fish and rice. The child bounced excitedly around her legs, carrying a few vegetables in his own hands. 

“Speaking of carefree,” Zelda paused, sweeping her eyes across the plaza, “I wonder where Sidon, Riju, and Yunobo are?”

 _Perhaps they are still sleeping. It is still early, even with all this commotion in the streets,_ Link signed.

The Princess hummed. “I suppose so. They were up at this time the other day, though. Perhaps they decided to sleep in. In any case, I think I am going to go take a look around Marot Mart. Stock up on some ingredients that you might be able to use on our journey home.”

 _While you do that, I can go make arrangements with the stablemen to have our horses and wagon ready at noon,_ he responded.

“Meet back here in twenty minutes, then?” She asked, meeting his eyes.

 _See you then,_ he said, turning on his heels with a wave. 

She returned his gesture enthusiastically, spinning in the direction of Marot Mart. The woman who advertised in the front of the shop greeted her happily, ushering her into the area and excitedly showing wares off to the girl. It wasn’t often that the Princess was not immediately recognized, and she felt comfortable in this friendly environment. 

The woman showed her all of their ingredients when she asked what type of food supplies they carried, boasting about their quality fish stock that came directly from some of the best fishermen in Zora’s Domain. A plethora of shellfish were also offered to her, but Zelda had never been a large fan of such creepy-looking creatures, and politely declined her efforts. She was, however, attracted to all the fresh vegetables and rice that was sold. It was more than likely that these were imported from around Hyrule or sold locally from the base of the river, but the tomatoes were shiny and red, and the corn firm and yellow. Everything looked like it was perfectly ripe, and the smell of the hearty radishes was heavy in the air.

After picking out some common ingredients that she thought Link would be able to use, she placed a bulk order that might last a five day journey to be picked up at noon. The staff all nodded, thanking her for her patronage as a young man began to compile the items into two large boxes at the back of the shop.

When the Princess exited from Marot Mart, only about fifteen minutes had passed. She figured she would wait by the fountain for Link to return, and took a seat on a white bench. People shuffled by, going about their daily lives in the heart of the Domain, and she found it fascinating just how lively the people here were. Even the less fortunate, which weren’t too hard to spot, had smiles on their faces, and the older Zorans waved at children that passed them. Zelda breathed in the good atmosphere, thrilled that they all seemed happy.

“Zelda!” Called a voice to her right. Seated in the midst of all the tall Zora, the Princess could not see clearly who it was that was calling to her, but as she turned her head she caught a glimpse of red hair and a burly woman right behind her.

“Riju!” She greeted cheerfully. “I had not realized you were awake.”

“Woke up less than twenty minutes ago,” she said as she came within proper earshot, bowing slightly before her Princess.

“Is Sidon not with you?” Zelda asked, peering behind the mammoth that was Buliara behind the young girl.

“He skipped off about ten minutes ago. Something about seeing Kaneli and Tulin off.”

“They are leaving already?” 

“Most people are,” Riju said nonchalantly. “Now that all the business has been concluded, everyone is heading home. Yunobo and Bludo left several hours ago I heard.”

“When do you plan on leaving?” The Princess prompted.

“I actually promised Sidon I would go swimming with him before we left, so we are going to leave tomorrow morning. It will also give us time to resupply before we head out,” the redhead said, taking the seat next to Zelda.

“I suppose your journey is quite long. I hope the general store does not end up lacking in wares to sell as we try to head out of Zora’s Domain. We just did a little restocking ourselves, actually.”

“We?” The Gerudo Chieftess asked.

“Ah- Link just went to talk to the stablemen about seeing that our horses and wagon are prepared to leave at noon, and I just placed a bulk order from Marot Mart so Link has things to cook with on our way back to Hyrule Castle,” Zelda explained.

“Ah, so you both are leaving at noon? Sidon and I will be the only ones left,” Riju pouted dramatically. 

“I am sure the two of you will have just as much fun. Besides, you should cherish the time you have together now. Unless you have plans of returning to Zora’s Domain before the coronation, you both will be missing each other for the better part of three months.”

“Oh, that’s right!” She exclaimed. “Maybe I should have accompanied him in seeing the Rito off, then. Well, then I may not have run into you, actually, so I am glad I came down here instead.”

“What did you head down here for anyway?” Zelda met Riju’s eyes.

“To go do what you just did, and to drink in the sights, I suppose. This place is nothing like Gerudo, even if it is a little chilly.”

The Princess chuckled. “I suppose to someone so used to such heat, this place would be on the colder side. Could I ask you how you got here in the first place?”

“We took Sand Seals until we hit the edge of the desert, and after that we rented some horses from a nearby stable. They are being held for us at a small farm at the base of the river.”

“Somehow I cannot imagine you riding a horse,” Zelda said lightheartedly.

“The Chief is quite capable,” Buliara said resolutely.

“Oh, no, I am quite awful,” Riju relented. “Quite a bumpy ride, those beasts are. I do not know how you and your people do it.”

“It just takes a little getting used to,” Zelda consoled her. “I am sure you are doing fine. It is not a necessary skill for the desert anyhow.”

“Ah, speaking of horses,” Riju said, trailing off as she turned to her left. The Princess followed her line of sight and saw Link jogging up to the fountain.

He spotted Riju and gave a stiff bow in her direction, then offered a smile at Buliara who only grunted. _Sorry I am late, he signed quickly. The stablemen had their hands full with giving the horses their hay and grain, so I gave them a quick hand._

“No worries,” the Princess said. “We have not been waiting long. The bulk order will be ready to pick up at noon, so make sure to let the other guardsmen to haul that into the wagon and be ready before then.”

The Champion nodded, then turned to the Gerudo Chieftess. _Do you plan on leaving today as well, Chief?_

“Yes, but not today. Sidon insists that I learn to properly swim before I return to Gerudo, even if I never will use such a skill in the desert.”

He nodded. _How about breakfast then? You all could use your strength for the day._

“Do not act as if you yourself are not hungry, voe,” Buliara said gruffly. 

The girls giggled at her comment as Link scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

“Off to the dining hall we go, then,” Riju said resolutely, swinging off the bench in a smooth motion. 

The guards took the rear behind their respective leaders, and without as many prying eyes, Buaria gave the Champion a nod in acknowledgement. That was the best she ever gave, and Link was flattered for even that much.

When they arrived at the dining hall, only a few people sat at the many tables. Breakfast was not a very popular meal here, and only a few kitchen workers flitted about the hall with food on silver serving plates. In the corner there were a few people that they recalled seeing at the feast the night before, passed out and face down against the wood tables.

The Princess and Riju took a few seats while Link and Buliara sought out some staff to bring food back to them, promising to return within a short while. Meanwhile, the Princess chattered with Riju. It was surprising how much the young girl had to say, and Zelda was glad she could help her act her age when the weight of her responsibilities most likely often prohibited that.

Their guards returned about ten minutes later, Link carrying two servings of seafood paella. When everyone was situated with their food, they all dug in. Except for Zelda, who said a quick prayer first. After being unable to visit any proper shrines for so many days, she was anxious to get home and find solace in her routine once again. There was only three months left to enjoy it, after all.

She hoped that there would be a bit of reprieve in that amount of time. Perhaps travel outside the castle for a short time while she still could. Preferably without the posse of people on her and Link’s tail. She wondered if that was a bad idea. If the monarchy was seen taking vacations when there was opposition about, her absence could be taken advantage of. 

Zelda ate her paella slowly, caught in thought while Riju animatedly explained how Gerudo had been evolving the past two years to her guard. Buliara crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes, allowing the white noise to pass in through one ear and out the other as she was granted this short rest. Her own plate of food had been thrown back within seconds, much like Link, and washed it down with a pint of water. The Princess wondered deftly if that was just a characteristic of guardsmen - having large, elastic stomachs that needed to be fed often.

She supposed that was natural, though. They burned quite a bit of energy on their daily training regimen, and she could only imagine what it took to keep up with their undoubtedly fast metabolisms. Perhaps that was a field of research she could study in the future. Link being her subject, of course. Not that he would complain; he was going to get food out of the deal, after all.

A little over an hour later, the group began shuffling out of the dining hall, stomachs full and spirits high. They all followed after the cheerful Gerudo youth who was recounting an experience with the leader of a local menace that had shown up in the desert. Apparently some troublemakers had established a small camp not too far from Gerudo Village in hopes of stealing off with the Thunder Helm, but the well-trained guardswomen of the village would never have let that come to light. They were all chuckling about how Riju described their swift getaway as they passed the entrance to King Dorephan’s public throne room when they almost ran straight into a small, old woman.

“Lady Zelda,” Impa greeted warmly, a smile spreading across her wrinkled face. She bowed as far as her old age would allow.

“What a pleasure to see you again,” Zelda replied happily. Link bowed to the elder slightly for manners’ sake.

“I was actually on my way to find you, Princess,” Impa allowed.

“Oh, were you?” The Princess asked, then turned to the Gerudo women. “You may have to catch me up on the rest of the details later, Chief Riju.” 

The young girl shrugged. “I should go find Sidon anyway. We’ll see you later, Your Highness.” With a small wave, they walked away, leaving only the three Hylians.

Link lifted himself from his knee, readjusting the strap across his body that held the Master Sword. 

“I was hoping to find a private word with Lady Zelda if that would be acceptable, young hero,” Impa continued. “I meant to clarify a few things from the meeting last night if it is no inconvenience to you.”

Zelda’s teeth ground at the thought, but she kept a pleasant smile anyway. Besides, it wasn’t Impa with whom she was angry. In fact, she wasn’t angry at anyone in particular, just the decision that was collectively decided upon. Well, maybe a little upset with King Dorephan, but she knew how politics worked, and seething like a child over a matter like this would only give her a bad name.

“I am afraid I do not understand,” The Princess said. “My knight was present at the gathering. Anything said also met his ears, but if you insist it be between us, then it would be more than acceptable, Lady Impa.”

“Dear, you do not need to be so formal. There are flower gardens near to here, some of which I have been told are beautiful at this time of year. And if it would make Link happier, he may wait at the entrance for our return,” the old woman said, smiling once again.

Zelda allowed herself to relax, somewhat reassured by the woman’s casual demeanor, and found it within herself to grin back. “Is that alright with you, Link?”

The Champion nodded dutifully.

“Fantastic. After you, Lady Impa,” the Princess said, offering her hand to the old woman.

“Bah,” Impa chuckled. “I am not that old yet, young one.”

It was a short walk to the gardens the elder had mentioned, but she was correct in that they were beautiful. There was only one shade of color throughout the entirety of the garden, a pale blue, but flowers of multiple species surrounded her. Some crawled up supports of the archways, spiraling through the wide-meshed designs, and others peeked out of bushes and from vines that swirled up large willow trees. In the middle, there was a wide bench made of the same quartz-like material that the rest of Zora’s Domain had been erected from.

Link kept his promise and waited with his back turned against the garden at the entrance, poising himself as most guards did at a post with a wide stance and their weapon pointed towards the ground but their hand on top of the hilt. As Impa and the Princess passed him, he cast her a quick side glance that Zelda happened to catch before his eyes flicked forward again. Not that the Princess had any reason to feel in danger here, but somehow she felt a hundred times more safe after that quick glance, and confidently entered the garden at the old woman’s side.

As they began following the white pebble-like path, Impa spoke up. “I would like to apologise for the events that took place last night,” she began. “I cannot imagine you were anything less than upset about a few things that were discussed.”

“I would never forsake any of your advice, Impa, and I value all of you as friends and even close family of mine. I am forever in debt to most of you for your help with reestablishing the Kingdom of Hyrule when it was completely crushed before, but I will admit that I do not agree with much of what was said.” Zelda reached her hand out to brush softly against some of the bushes, her skin tingling at the soft sensation of petals against her skin as they passed.

“You must trust that we have your best interests at heart, Lady Zelda.”

“With all due respect, you supported King Dorephan’s plans to marry me off,” Zelda said. 

“It was not my intention to have it come across that way. I admit that Dorephan’s plans are perhaps a little drastic in that the opposition in the castle is so far quite small in scale, but I do agree that something must be done. With running a kingdom comes learning to sacrifice. The best we can hope for is that the coronation will buy us some time to put an end to this foolishness before we come to take such measures.”

“Forgive me,” the Princess said. “I recognize that I was always meant to be matched with a powerful suitor when the time came, but after everything that this kingdom has been through, I had hoped that the circumstances may have changed that.”

Impa smiled softly. “As do I, Lady Zelda.” 

They reached the bench, and the girl offered her elder a hand as she sat, and this time Impa accepted the aid. 

“The reason I wished to talk to you was to apologize for upsetting you the other day, but also to clarify that Dorephan’s plans are currently the only plans. That much I cannot change, and quite frankly I would rather not fly by the seat of our pants with a matter that could grow to be rather serious. Until new information is uncovered and more options come to light, I believe we should follow his suggested path,” Impa continued.

“You are right,” Zelda sighed.

“Princess, if I may ask, why are you so opposed to taking on the throne? This has been your birthright since the day you were born. Why now are you having second thoughts?” 

The Princess looked down into her palms, remembering how it felt to hold her hand up to the Guardian that had ended Link’s life. There had been a hot sensation, one akin to stepping into the sun after sitting under the cool shade of a tree in the summer. Then, she remembered her father. King Rhoam had been a strict and unforgiving parent, never allowing his daughter to forget her duties to the people. His words rang out in her ears, and guilt clawed at her heart. 

“Father scolded me once for being so invested in the Sheikah technology before Calamity Ganon returned. He told me that the gossip mongers whispered of my ascent to a throne of nothing, a throne of failure. Ultimately, he was wrong, but the day that Link was sent to the Shrine of Resurrection, he was right. It hadn’t made a difference that I had harnessed the power Hylia had given me until the very end - until it no longer mattered. Calamity Ganon still wrought the province of everything it had, costing several their property, their livelihoods, and some even their lives. In truth, I had failed them.

“When Link returned and Calamity Ganon was defeated, I knew that if I was going to reestablish the kingdom I would have to earn back the trust of my people. To do that, they had to believe in me beyond the fact that I had lived for over a hundred years and still looked as young as I did from before, beyond the fact that I had done nothing to help them until then, and beyond the fact that I only had a birthright to the throne. I didn’t want my people to return under my rule believing that a silly child was simply laying claim to what she was born with; I wanted them to return believing in me. Believing that I could help them recover from this tragedy; believing that I could lay claim to a throne of honesty and compassion, and not just to a stale crown that had been waiting for me.

“And they _did._ ” Zelda felt tears gather in her eyes. “They came back to me, chose me as their ruler once again after having made so many mistakes. I am reluctant to take the crown because my people have not chosen me to be their queen - only their princess. I know that it would be impossible to have them crown me queen on their own, but it still feels wrong deciding on my own to simply ascend to full power without their consent. Especially for such… political reasons.”

Impa was quite for a moment before she responded, her expression thoughtful. “Unfortunately, there is no other way to ascend to queenship for reasons that are not political, Lady Zelda. I am afraid that is a reality that you simply must accept. As for the happiness of your people, I can attest that those loyal to you now would like nothing more than to see you crowned their queen, even if it is to quell opposition and nothing more. Besides, it would be farfetched of them to think that you would remain a princess forever. Perhaps at the time of the kingdom’s rebirth, it was a better option to retain the title you had before, but you have matured greatly since that time, and we all believe you are ready to claim your crown.”

The Princess wiped away the moisture from the corners of her eyes. “Thank you for your kind words,” she whispered.

“Of course, dear,” Impa said. “I wish you nothing but success, and I am sure that even if you do face challenges in the future, your knight will be there to support you when the rest of us are not able to.”

She couldn’t help but smile at her comment, her cheeks and the tips of her ears blushing as she breathed a sigh of relief through her grin. “He has yet to waver.”

The old woman chuckled. “Yes, he has yet to waver.” The glowing spark of happiness in the Sheikah woman’s eyes twinkled for a short moment, until suddenly it dulled and her face returned to seriousness. “How is that boy doing, Your Highness?”

Zelda’s content expression fell fractionally, and she looked to the old woman with a hint of confusion. “He is well, I believe. Why do you ask?”

Impa hummed softly, closing her wrinkly eyes. “That young man has been through more than was ever fair of life to throw at him. I only worry, is all.”

The Princess cast a look over her shoulder at the blue-clad Champion still standing by the entrance of the garden. His shoulders and back were broad, and his stance was strong and unmoving. It struck her again just how much he had grown in the past two years. His growth spurt had hit him like a truck, and there was a period of a month where he had looked strangely disproportional as his legs had grown much faster than his torso. She had poked fun at him about six months after Calamity Ganon’s defeat how he resembled that of a deer. He had brushed it off with a chuckle.

“He has grown, hasn’t he?” Impa broke her from her thoughts.

“Yes,” Zelda sighed. “He has grown into quite a fine warrior.”

Impa chuckled. “Indeed. Into quite a capable young man, as well. I do often wonder what goes through his head sometimes, though.”

Zelda turned back to the old woman. “What do you mean?”

“Do you remember when he left the castle reparations to you for about a week a few months after Calamity Ganon was sealed?” Impa asked.

The Princess nodded. “He had said he needed to get away for a little while and amend a few things he had left unfinished.”

“He stayed in Kakariko Village for that time,” Impa continued. “We offered him a place to stay while he attended to his business throughout the day, and he accepted. He left each morning at a terribly early hour, and returned rather late at night. The only time I ever saw him was when he returned two nights in a row. I do not think he had meant to be seen, because by the looks of him, he had been crying.”

Zelda’s eyes widened. She had only seen Link cry a few times. Last night, for one, once when they were children, and lastly when he had curled into a ball one night after he had awakened, and had simply sobbed into his own arms for several hours. It had devastated her to watch him so hurt, but there hadn’t been anything she could have done.

“The last day he was with us, he came back at a reasonable hour of night. He even ate with us, excused himself to turn in early, but woke a few hours later in a fit of screams.”

Dread consumed the Princess, and her face fell. What had gotten him so upset?

“When Paya rushed in to find out what had happened, she must have startled him, because he grabbed his sword the moment she entered. Of course, he dropped it as soon as he realized he who it was, but it had scared Paya rather deeply. He left right after that, in the dead of night.”

Zelda recalled seeing the Champion the morning after his return, but hadn’t remembered waking up to greet him when he had arrived. “I…” the Princess began, but found herself at a loss for words. A second passed before she tried again. “I have never seen him like that.”

“Neither had we.” Impa said, a sigh carrying through her slight body that made her shoulders rise and fall deeply. “I ask if he seems alright because I can only wonder what toll his travels and his memories have taken on him.”

“I was actually thinking about that this morning,” Zelda relented. “How he could ever sleep soundly after all he had been through.”

Impa eyed her suspiciously, and the Princess realized what she had said. Her body froze up. Oh, how could she have been so stupid! She had all but admitted to being there while the boy had slept.

However, Impa’s eyes travelled back down to the flowers in front of them. “In all honesty, I do not believe he does, Princess.”

Zelda remained rather rigid at her side. There was no way that after giving her such a look that the old woman would have allowed what she had said to go over her head. Impa was too smart for that. But she was not one to let an opportunity to allow a comment she made fade into passing, so she tried not to let her expression change too drastically. 

“It is hard to remember that just three and a half years ago he reawoke. I hope I never experience the burden of responsibility that crushed his shoulders upon awakening without remembering anything but his name.”

The Princess remained silent without any other way to take her words. It had always been Link’s destiny to help her defeat Calamity Ganon, but she had to agree with Impa that she never wanted to experience having so much pressure thrown onto someone who couldn’t remember anything from their past. Link himself had expressed how damning it had been not being able to remember significant portions of his life - never knowing if the person in his memories was the same person he was today. So instead of giving a proper reply, Zelda kept her eyes downcast on the gravely path that the pretty bench sat on surrounded by pretty flowers and pretty scenery, unable to find proper words to express how she felt. Without them, she could only hum.

“Forgive me, Your Highness,” Impa said after a moment. “The ramblings of an old woman must be sour to your ears. If you believe that he has recovered, I will put my faith in you.”

Zelda nodded, but her expression revealed how deeply this troubled her. 

“But,” the elder said after a moment, causing the Princess to look up, “I must ask you one more question, if I may.”

“Of course,” Zelda said.

“Please allow me to first apologize for overstepping, Lady Zelda, but I must tell you this before something goes wrong.” Impa turned to her, meeting her gaze under the long brim of her traditional hat. The Sheikah symbols that dangled from its edges clinked as she moved, and Zelda was suddenly trapped in her gaze. “I need not tell you to be careful, because you are smart enough to know that without my saying.”

“What do you…?” The Princess asked, but Impa only raised her brows while her eyes narrowed. 

“You and the Champion, of course,” the old woman concluded. 

Zelda’s face suddenly grew hot, her face lighting up a shade darker than a ripe cherry. “N-no, no. You have mistaken this. Surely you do not mean- no.”

Such a lame rouse wouldn’t have even fooled a child, let alone the wise woman who sat before her who looked as unimpressed as a Hylian ever could. “In any case, be careful,” Impa continued, ignoring her outburst. “Now is not the time to have a scandal. I do, however, understand now why you so oppose Dorephan’s suggested course of action.”

The Princess looked away guiltily. “Is it truly so obvious?” She mumbled.

“Truly, Lady Zelda, it is not, but I have always been a little suspicious. It’s only natural, is it not? You are both of such age, and having gone through as much as you have together, it is safe to assume that you are attached to each other deeply. It would make it less obvious if you selected your words a little more carefully, though,” Impa finished. “Those of us at court may not always notice your side glances, but our ability to read between the lines is unmatched.”

“I beg you not to tell anyone,” Zelda said quietly after several heavy moments of silence, swallowing her pride. “I fear that if we are found out Link will leave.”

“What makes you think that he would ever abandon his charge?”

“If Link believes that the knowledge of our relationship might hurt my status, he would undoubtedly prioritize that. That is just the way he is,” the Princess explained.

Impa sat thoughtfully, but could only nod in agreement. “I do not know what would happen to your position as ruler of Hyrule in that scenario, but I must digress back to my point about the possibility of needing to wed you. I support that you should be able to marry whomever you choose, and if the time comes where you are found out and Hyrule needs a king, I can assure you that you have my word I will fight for the both of you.”

Zelda sighed deeply, feeling the weight of her situation crawl over her. “Thank you, but I do not believe just one voice would be enough.”

“Then what do you plan on doing, Princess?” Impa asked.

The Princess lifted her gaze to the bush that wavered in the slight breeze. Its flowers swayed gently with its rhythm, and she felt a rush of bittersweetness overwhelm her. “I suppose we will burn that bridge when we come to it,” she said softly.

Impa chuckled at the malaphor, and the two sat quietly next to each other for a minute. Zelda took this opportunity to absorb this information, trying to quell the sinking feeling she had in her gut. She wondered briefly what time it was and how much time she and the other Hylians had before they were set to leave. She still needed to pack her things, and Link had yet to let the other guardsmen know of their pending leave. 

“When are you leaving, Lady Impa?” Zelda asked after the prolonged silence.

“We have decided to stay an extra day. I wish to discuss a few courses of action regarding a few dutchee states between our territories with King Dorephan before I take my leave,” Impa responded. “What about you, Your Highness?”

“We are scheduled to leave at noon, actually. We still have a bit of packing to do, though.”

“Please do not let me stop you, Lady Zelda,” Impa said, an insistent smile on her face. She looked up to the position of the sun for a moment, squinting even below the wide brim of her hat. “By the looks of it, you will need that time to pack.”

Zelda followed her gaze. “You are right. Thank you for talking with me, Lady Impa.”

“Thank you for listening, Lady Zelda,” Impa replied earnestly, her wrinkly lips splitting into a grin. “Now,” she said, “off with you.”

The Princess curtsied swiftly, then walked quickly towards the entrance of the garden. As she approached, she fixed her eyes on the broad back of her guard ahead of her, smiling like a giddy child at the thought that she could walk besides him again. She felt better now that she had been reassured that not everyone in that meeting had been out to get her, especially now that the weight of one of her biggest secrets of late had been somewhat lifted from her shoulders. It felt good knowing that there was an ally she could count on if it came down to it, but for now there was no reason to discontinue their cautious efforts. 

Until things settled down and the kingdom reached some level of normalcy again, maybe a plan could be made that might allow the two to be together. After all, at that point she would be queen.

But if this opposition did not go down when she took the crown, she might also be married. Married to someone she didn’t know or enjoyed the company of. Married to a wealthy man of some importance, and sentenced to pushing out heirs until one happened to be male.

Zelda couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let that happen. Even if what she had with Link eventually ended - which she couldn’t actually see happening at least anytime soon - she would not allow herself to be sold off to the highest buyer in such an undignified way. If that meant she had to take on a full-scale rebellion, then so be it. 

The pebbled pathway made a crunching sound beneath her boots as she strode towards the exit, and she could see Link’s ear twitch at the sound. He turned his head only enough to see her out of the corner of his eye, but when he realized that they must have finished, he forgot the stance he had taken in favor of bowing deeply as the Princess approached.

 _All done?_ He signed when she came close enough to properly read his hands.

“Yes,” Zelda replied, bumping her arm into his as she walked by in a friendly manner. She began walking into the plaza, packed even more now than it had been before. Link quickly sheathed the Master Sword, following three steps behind her as he normally did. “What time is it?” She asked, slowing down so he could fall into her pace.

 _Just after ten._ The Champion looked around, finding gaps in the crowd to duck through as he weaved them through the swarms of Zora. _We should collect our things and start to pack the wagon._

“My thoughts exactly,’ agreed the Princess as she swung around a couple with a child that danced in the streets.

Link’s arm pressed against hers, trying to keep them close so neither could drown in the sea of people in front of them. When he signed, it was scrunched in front of him. _I think it is best if I drop you off in your chambers and let you pack, then I will go notify the other guardsmen of our leave at noon. When you are ready, meet us by the stables, and we will get you situated there._

“What about all of your own things? Do you not also need to pack?” She said as they managed to slip through another large group of people.

 _We pack lightly,_ was all Link needed to say, Zelda frowning and pouting her lip, mumbling about how she never overpacked for anything.

At last they were able to breathe as they fished themselves out of the swarm of Zora in the main plaza. At some point or another, Link had grabbed the Princess’s hand, leading her to safety without fear that she may get left behind. She wasn’t entirely sure why the Champion was so worried about losing her in the crowd, though. After all, it was a straight shot across the plaza to the lodgings, and even if she had managed to get turned around in the chaos, surely if she had travelled in a straight line and gone clockwise around the area she would have eventually found the inn. 

But it was nice being able to hold his hand so openly. It was a strange feeling, knowing that she was in his confident and safe grasp. It also didn’t hurt that with all the people around them, it was rather unlikely anyone would bat an eye at a couple holding hands. Neither were in any formal garb, after all, and the only thing that stood out about them was the fact that they were Hylian. The change of pace was refreshing though, and she felt emotion swell at the gesture when his warm hand had enveloped hers. His grip was reassuring but tender, and the fact that he was trying to keep the other from straying too far was almost enough to make her giggle giddily.

The moment was over too soon, however, because as soon as they emerged from the crowd, her hand was released gently, set back at her side. Link smiled at her sheepishly, the tips of his ears blushing as he signed _Sorry_ one-handedly. 

“No worries,” Zelda said quietly, so quietly that she was concerned that he may not have heard her. But she had faith in his hearing, knowing that it was partially what had kept him alive all this time. 

_After you._ The Champion swung his arms towards the entrance of the lodgings, and the Princess giggled as she scurried forward a few steps. 

It didn’t take them long to weave their way through the corridors of the lodging, and Link grabbed the handle of Zelda’s door before she could reach for it. With a grand, exaggerated gesture, Link bowed deeply as he opened the door for her. 

With feigned embarrassment, she waltzed in, glancing back at him from within the threshold of her chambers. He quickly signed that he would be rounding up the others and gathering the rest of their supplies while she packed, guaranteeing that they would be leaving on time despite how much there was to be done. She reminded him to sick one of the guards on loading the wagon with what she had bought from Marot Mart, and he nodded dutifully. When he moved to close the door, though, the Princess did not miss how he held her within his sights just a moment longer than normal before disappearing behind the soft sound of the oak door shutting.

Zelda breathed deeply, letting out her sigh as more of a huff. She wasn’t sure how much time it would take to collect, fold, and organize everything she had brought with her in such a way that it would fit in the travel chests, but she had her work cut out for her to say the least. 

Truthfully, she hadn’t actually brought that much with her. She had brought four dresses, two changes of clothes, a few of her own sheets that she hadn’t ended up using, and a sleuth of jewelry. Her research items had all been brought with her as well, and she had an entirely separate crate designated for such things. She had picked away at a few things in her spare time while she had been here, but without being able to check up on the data of her experiments back at the castle, she couldn’t really do much except analyze the information she had in the several notebooks.

In other words, it was another thing that she may not have actually needed to bring with her. Just another large load to throw onto the wagon.

She was itching to return, though. Zelda had been thinking of a few ways to improve her theories while she had been here, and was planning on adjusting the Silent Princess experiment slightly in order to hopefully achieve more favorable results.

While the Princess hummed a tune to herself, dreaming about all of the materials and experiments she had in her research tower, she got to work. All of the clothing she had brought with her had been more or less shoved into drawers upon their arrival a few days ago. There hadn’t been a reason to fold anything except for the dresses that would be better off not wrinkled, but her normal clothes and her prayer robes could stand to be in a crumpled state without actually wrinkling for that long. 

Her dresses went in first, and as per usual, she was always surprised to see how much space they actually took. The fabric was airy and fluffy - a material that didn’t stay flat when it was folded. It didn’t help that there were layers upon layers of the material, not to mention the accessories and shoes that went along with it. By the time she had packed them all down into the bottom of the chest ten minutes later, half of it was already full. 

At least she didn’t have much more to go.

Next was jewelry, and she carefully wrapped each of her necklaces, bangles, earrings, ear-guardes, and cufflinks separately in the same soft tissue wrapping they had been in. They all went into a separate bag that she would tuck into the side of the travel chest, carefully packed so as not to scratch any of the jewels inlaid into the silver and gold. 

The only things left now were her extra changes of clothes, night gown, and her prayer robes. They were packed into the back of the wooden drawer of the wardrobe, and Zelda grunted with the effort to disentangle and pull them out of it. 

But, strangely, after all the rest of her clothes came out of the drawer, the Princess felt light fabric on her fingers as she tugged the final article of clothing free. She was sure she had already collected her laundry off in another part of the wardrobe, and she frowned when she stuck her hand back in. The tips of her fingers brushed something frilly and soft. Zelda grabbed it, fishing it out, and stared at what was in her grasp.

It was the white, lacey two-piece she had hidden away after Riju had discovered it when the Chieftess had been helping the Princess unpack. Her face colored red, and she promptly shoved the set into the corner of the travel chest, burying it deep beneath her dresses. 

She had completely forgotten she had brought that. It was unintentional grabbing it when she had left the castle. Zelda had been groping through her underwear drawer in her own vanity and throwing in anything that happened to get in the way of her hand, and she had incidentally managed to take it with her. There was no shame in having it, she supposed, but the thought of wearing it when the past consecutive few nights in Zora’s Domain had been spent with Link made her heart hammer against her chest.

What would he have done if she had worn it? Maybe he would have appreciated it, but with how eager he was to get her out of her brassiere each time they went down on the other, she figured that maybe he preferred her out of it. 

Then again, it could have been fun to tease him like she had the night before, not allowing him to touch her as she sat on his lap and brought him tumbling over the edge.

Zelda shook her head violently, her face several shades darker than the sweetest cherry as she tried to dispel these inappropriate thoughts. She felt strange thinking about such things. Had the nights in Zora’s Domain turned her into some sort of sex monster? 

Goddesses, she hoped not. The thought was gross in it of itself. 

It had been fun, though. She would be lying if she said it hadn’t. They had never had such privacy in Hyrule Castle like they had here. It was a somewhat private lodging with little traffic going through the halls. Both had been given their own rooms, and they had been their own supervisors. There were no prying eyes here that there were in Castle Town or in the Sanctum. The freedom of Zora’s Domain was alluring and addictive, and the Princess felt disappointed suddenly that they had to leave. 

It was nice to have been in charge of solely herself, even if it was only a few days.

And even though her experiments and research were all at Hyrule Castle, the thought of leaving the castle once again for a similar venture sounded more than thrilling. So thrilling, in fact, that as Zelda began folding her clothes she began thinking up reasons for her to leave. Not for long, obviously, and they had to be important enough to actually warrant her leaving the kingdom’s territory. She recalled Riju talking about the Yiga Clan starting to arise once more, and she wondered if that was reason enough. Not that anyone in the castle could really tell her otherwise anyway, just that she figured that if she was going to use this to her advantage that she might as well get some legitimate princess business over with while she was at it. 

So that was going to be her plan, the Princess decided. She had three months of freedom left before she was going to truly be pinned down by constant queenly duties, and possibly faced with an arranged marriage if this opposition didn’t die down with the coronation. Three months to check things off of her bucket list that she wouldn’t be able to do from within Hyrule Castle’s walls. 

And that, Zelda thought with a smile on her face while she clicked the travel chest shut, was exactly what she intended to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to clarify: I am aware that in Zelda's Chambers in Hyrule Castle that you can find out the canonical reason Link never speaks, but I want you all to know that I think the reason they gave was less than satisfying. When I played through it the first time, I got so excited that we would finally be fed that tidbit of information, but I was completely disappointed when they reduced it to "oh, he's dutiful." They had the setup for what I believe to be the most indepth character design they had created for Link so far in the series, and it was crushing when it came to such an anticlimactic conclusion. Anyway, I'll stop ranting while I'm ahead; I just want you all to know that I won't be acknowledging that piece of information. I am fully behind the fact that Link is voluntarily mute (as if I haven't already made that clear), but I'll be making up my own reasons for why he is that way.
> 
> Also: I neglected to put this in other chapters, but please practice safe sex. Always use a condom, kids.
> 
> Also also: This is not my normal upload schedule. I am dumping all of this at once because it's already done. After I post this chapter, expect an update once a week unless stated otherwise.


	8. New Adventures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My entirely unrealistic take on how the kingdom of Hyrule can work - where it's completely functional and fine when the monarchy leaves for a week-long vacation with her not-boyfriend.
> 
> Next chapter will be released on October 1st, 2020.

It was exciting being able to go out on an adventure for a change. Zelda’s blood carried adrenaline as it pumped through her veins throughout her entire body. With nothing but the saddlebags on their horses, the satchels across their shoulders, and the Sheikah Slate’s map to guide them through Hyrule, the Princess could only feel overwhelmingly giddy.

It had taken much convincing in her court to allow her this time off before her coronation, coming to accept the fact that in order to be the queen her people needed, it was necessary that she experience life without a crown on her head for at least this long. 

Two weeks had passed since they had returned from Zora’s Domain, and Zelda had gotten to work immediately to ensure that she and Link would be traveling to the Gerudo region for business, and anywhere else they could find for their own enjoyment. She had a list of places that they could feasibly make it to in the time they would have together, and even though the Princess knew that Link surely had his own destinations in mind, he had stubbornly refused to share them with her when she asked.

“But how are we supposed to plot a course from Gerudo if I do not know where you might want to go as well? In order to see all of what we want to see, we shouldn’t waste time doubling back if we can help it! If you would just tell me where you wanted to go, I could incorporate it into our travel plans,” Zelda had said with immense exasperation.

_Like I said,_ Link had responded, _wherever you want to go, that is fine with me._

The Princess had huffed with annoyance and left with an indignant “I asked!” before storming out of the library. Link had only chuckled, turning back to the book he was reading before.

So far, Zelda knew she wanted to visit a few places after they finished in Gerudo. All of her plans were wholly dependent on how long it took them to finish up with the Yiga Clan, but she had decided in advance that they would first start with a week in Hateno Village. She wasn’t sure how often Link had the chance to visit his home there, but it wasn’t entirely impossible with his Sheikah Slate’s teleportation capabilities. In fact, he could choose to spend his day off anywhere in Hyrule if he so chose, going as far as Hebra to shield sled or as close as the Great Hyrule Forest just north. 

When she had voiced her choice, she knew she had done well when he perked up, his ears twitching with interest. Although Hateno wasn’t exactly on their way to Gerudo, it would be a good change of pace for him to forget his guard duties for a time, and allow himself the happiness of settling for a week in a peaceful little village. She figured he could teach her a few things while they were there, like how to shoot a bow, maybe teach her a trick or two in hand-to-hand combat, and most definitely show her all the cards he kept up his sleeve when it came to cooking.

Besides, she would be lying if the domesticity of such a suggested lifestyle, even if it was only to last a week before they would be going right back to business, sounded less than ideal. If she was lucky, no one in town would recognize her, even if they knew Link was the Hero of Hyrule. That’s when she had her second most brilliant idea.

She had given her hair much more thought over this time, and come to the conclusion that if she was going to be crowned queen, she needed to be someone else for her people. If not a more perfect version of herself, because that was humanly unachievable, then to be what they needed at the time. So if she was going to change herself and her ways in order to keep Hyrule’s peace in place, she figured a change of appearance was only appropriate as well.

The day they had planned to leave was upon them, and the first thing Zelda did when Link knocked on the door to her chambers was hand him a rather large pair of scissors.

“To my shoulders!” She had demanded the confused Champion. “Not a centimeter longer, nor a centimeter shorter.”

As he always did when she was making such an altering choice, she reassured him that this was not impulsive, and that she had been giving it quite a bit of thought since they had been in Zora’s Domain. It was nice to feel his fingers on the nape of her neck again as well. The day they had left the fish people’s region, neither had laid so much as a hand on the other. Hyrule Castle and Castle Town was simply too full of too many people too nosy for their own good. There just were not enough nooks or crannies for the aerobic activities both wished to enjoy.

But that was going to change very soon. Zelda was going to make damn sure of that.

She had abided by his strictly horse-and-satchel rules, insisting that if they were to go on an “adventure” like she wished, that was all they would need. Of course, Link had made sure they had provisions that would last them their journey, and enough things to create a camp comfortable for his charge while they were out, but everything else was left behind, and the Princess couldn’t have wanted it any other way. Absolutely no unnecessary items were taken with them.

Except, of course, her secret weapon.

Upon their return from Zora’s Domain, when Zelda had emptied out her travel chest, she had dug out the white lingerie set from the bottom corner of the wooden box with a confidence that she didn't know she possessed, and had stashed it in an unused drawer in her wardrobe for the time being. When the time came to pack her things and ready herself for the coming journey, she had pounced at the garments with an excitement that seemed to claw at her from the inside. 

Of course, she brought some spare clothes, her typical nightgown, and her prayer robes, but that was all she took clothes-wise. Her personal items included her field notes research book and a few charcoal pencils that fit easily into her leather satchel. Then, and only then, was she ready.

After cutting her hair, Link had left her to pack while he fetched the horses. Galen was always quiet, but he thanked the goddesses for Storm’s remarkably good behavior that morning. He had been anticipating this trip for the past week while the Princess had organized her affairs in preparation for the coming coronation. The deal she had struck with the council allowed her to take these three months of leave from duty so long as she returned on time and organized the coronation in advance. Several sleepless nights later, the Princess had told him to be ready to leave in a few days’ time, and an itch had settled in his gut.

It was something he simply couldn’t scratch - the kind that itches the more you claw at it. The call of adventure was wild and tempting, a bone dangled tantalizingly above his head. He hadn’t gone out of the castle for any other reason than on business with the Princess since the kingdom had been reborn - well over a year and a half ago now. The Champion recalled the smell of danger around every corner with a twinge of excitement.

He knew he shouldn’t feel this way - because truly that year that it took him after his resurrection had been rightfully awful, but knowing who he was more than he had then, the taste of adventure was sweeter than any nectar, and it was sitting right in front of him. Maybe he was an adrenaline junky. Or maybe he just enjoyed the thrill of it.

But that wasn’t the only thing he was excited about. After having tasted the forbidden fruit so many times in Zora’s Domain, the Champion had been chomping on the bit for something to happen since then. He would never overstep and invade her space, of course. He still wanted to be courteous and attentive of her, and allow her to take steps whenever she pleased, but it was getting harder and harder to wait. When she had suggested that they spend a week at Hateno Village, he had first thought about all the fun they could have while they were there. Catch frogs, find wild ingredients to make food with, take rides through some fields, but then his mind had drifted to what he wanted to do when evening came around. 

He wasn’t an animal - and his thoughts weren’t completely impure. If nothing else, he was excited that he would be able to spend such quality time with the girl he loved, and planned on showing just how much he cared any opportunity he got. He had planned recipes in advance that he knew she liked, and to read with her by the fire, or simply listen to her prattle on about the intricacies of how unbelievable Sheikah technology was as she fawned over the Slate. But he had also been looking forward to being able to properly share a bed with her - to wake up to her face without feeling pressured to get up in the morning; to bring her her favorite meal and brush her hair until she woke.

By the way that he giddily bounced on the balls of his feet, Link knew exactly what he looked like to passerby giving him strange looks. But he really couldn’t bring himself to care. After all, this next week was going to be the best of his life. He just knew it. 

The Champion spotted her golden hair through the castle staff that swarmed by the entrance before he actually saw her. Only now, it was much, much shorter, and he marveled at just how pretty she looked now. He had tried not to ogle at her after he had finished cutting it just twenty minutes ago in her chambers, but now he felt like he was allowed to stare as she skipped across the bridge across the moat and bound towards him. His heart hammered against his chest disruptively as she smiled and waved at him. With both reins in his hands, he couldn’t return the gesture without annoying one of the horses unnecessarily, so instead he just beamed right back.

“Sorry for taking so long,” Zelda said through her smile, brushing the newly short hair behind her ears. “I had to grab a few things.”

Link handed her Storm’s reins before signing, _No worries. Are you ready?_

With an eager nod, and another smile that sent Link’s heart rate through the roof and brought pink to his ears, the Champion launched the Princess into her saddle while he swung himself up into Galen’s.

He had told her when they had bounded off out of the southern gates of Hyrule Castle that their journey to Hateno Village would take most of the day at a steady pace, but that they could undoubtedly get there before nightfall as long as they stayed on course. The Princess had nodded eagerly, ready to escape the suffocating walls of the castle and the town below it. 

Besides, she had a plan to execute. 

And she would be damned if she let anything get in her way. This week was going to be about showing Link how they could be normal people, and to give him a taste of what life with her outside of royal duties could entail. Of course, he would still be her personal guard throughout - unfortunately, that was simply his job - but Hateno was known for being one of the most peaceful places in Hyrule, so there was a good chance they would be wholly unbothered the next seven days. 

Zelda had wondered if Link was correct in how long it would take them to actually arrive in Hateno, skeptical of his short approximation as they began trotting out the southern gate. It had taken their group of ten people four entire days to reach Zora’s Domain and five to return. But then again, they had been moving no faster than a crawl. 

This time they had the freedom of moving quickly without a giant wagon full of supplies to hinder their pace, and the horses seemed just as relieved about it as they were. Making the horses sit in their stalls for a long time, then to take them out on a journey they weren’t allowed to go faster than a walk on was borderline cruel having as much energy as they did. So, when the Princess and her guard asked their respective mounts to move up to a faster pace, the two horses shot off happily, eager to blow off steam.

Storm, being younger and slightly larger, took longer strides, and Zelda whooped at her mount’s enthusiasm as they passed Link and Galen. But the Champion’s horse was competitive, and as much as he seemed to like his rider, he simply wouldn’t lose to the white horse charging ahead of him. 

They laughed as the sound of hooves hitting the path and the sound of the wind in their ears overwhelmed their senses. The temperature had begun to drop the past week as they approached autumn, and the crisp chill in the air bit at their faces in a pleasant way. 

Although Zelda had tried to convince her knight that she wanted true adventure, including the trials of treacherous landscapes on their way to Hateno, Link had to remind her that if they attempted to make a straight shot out of the kingdom to the village that they most certainly would find themselves in areas where the horses could not cross. So the Princess huffed as she watched the scenery pass her as they traveled southeast, longing to cross through the ruins that they passed along the way. 

After several hours of riding, the horses began getting tired. The sun was high in the sky, and it was pleasantly warm now, even if the wind still carried a nip to it. They had made it to the far reaches of West Necluda now with the Dueling Peaks in sight. As the equines drank from the Hylia River on the eastern side of Proxim Bridge, Zelda decided it was as good a time as any to begin her plan while their mounts rested.

“You should teach me that spinning move you do with your blade!” She cried as the Champion smiled reluctantly at her. “Or! Or the jump attack! Oh, I barely have the balance for a somersault, so it would be good to at least improve on that, right? Please, Link, please!”

The man sighed, dragging a hand down his face as he looked around for any trees he could snap branches off of. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, just that he was anxious to get to Hateno where there was less of a chance a group of bokoblins would pass through. But the horses needed a rest anyway, so they were stuck there whether he wanted to stick around or not, so he climbed a nearby apple tree and kicked off two branches to use.

He tossed one at her from above, and the Princess grabbed it with a little difficulty, scrambling when it slipped out of her fingers as it fell. She huffed indignantly when he snickered at her before jumping down out of the leaves with his own weapon. The Master Sword was still slung around his body, and it rattled against the shield he carried when he landed on the soft grass.

Link led her through a few simple exercises first, correcting her stance when she bowed her knees or crouched just a little too low. He explained that momentum was what carried the power of the blade, and that redirecting an opponent’s strength was often just as effective as utilizing her own. He unsheathed the Master Sword for just a moment, hastily carving out a circle and a dot in the middle of it on the tree’s trunk before allowing it to fall into its cover once again at his back. The Champion demonstrated a simple strike, and the Princess watched as the end of his stick stuck the dot in the circle perfectly.

He gestured for her to try as well, and Zelda was surprised to find how difficult it was to figure out the correct way to strike straight and true while maintaining a strong and balanced position. She had felt great pride when her stick hit within the circle for the first time, only for Link to shake his head and tap at the back of her knees with his stick. She tried again, but with as much luck as she had to begin with.

They spent ten minutes working at that, and Zelda felt satisfied that she was able to find her strikes hitting within the circle a handful of times, relishing in the subtle nods and sounds of approval from her guard. There had been a complete fluke where she had struck the center perfectly like the Champion had when he was demonstrating it, and the Princess squealed with delight. Link had joined in, cheering her on with a high five, a whoop, and a wide smile.

The last half hour of their rest was spent sparring hand-to-hand, beginning with Link teaching her to go for her opponents’ weak points. Zelda knew she hadn’t very much upper body strength to work with throwing punches, so Link built off of the idea of momentum in order to teach her how to spin around an enemy and temporarily disable them by jabbing them at certain points. For example, he mentioned how sensitive the eyes were, and he told her that he would not demonstrate such a move for obvious reasons. He did, however, ask her to close her eyes, telling her beforehand that he would lay his thumbs over her eyelids. She did just that, and was surprised at the amount of discomfort this brought her. Of course, he wasn’t actually using any strength, but even the light pressure of his fingers’ presence was enough to make her want to recoil.

The second lesson he taught her was how to get out of an armlock in a method that looked much like a Gerudo dance. It was hard-going not being able to voice what he was doing while he acted out the motion, having to pause after every move so she could visualize what he was trying to portray, but after going through the process twice the Princess thought she had understood.

Link, again, used no force in his hold, grasping her wrists in a way that there must have still been air between their skin. They used deliberately slow motions as Zelda writhed her way out of his hold, and found herself out of his hold quickly. 

“I did it!” She cheered, a wide smile splitting her lips. As she laughed triumphantly, she could not see the Champion’s adoring gaze.

Far too soon, their break was over, and the horses shook themselves out as they prepared to ride. Link pulled a carrot out, handing it to Zelda to give to her mount. Storm nickered as she held it out to him, and it was gone within a few seconds. The Princess giggled, thanking him as she softly pet the horse’s nose. Galen, offended he was not offered anything, nudged Link insistently on the shoulder, causing the boy to stumble forward a few steps. The Champion sighed deeply, rifling through a saddle bag and pulling out a banana.

“Really?” Zelda asked as she watched him begin to peel it. “Do horses even like bananas?”

Link chucked, breaking the fruit in half so his mount wouldn't swallow it all up at once. But Galen didn’t stop there. As soon as he was done with the acceptable part of the yellow fruit, Link began ripping apart the peel and giving it to him. When everything had been finished, the horse began licking Link’s sleeve affectionately, and only now with his hands empty the Champion could respond to the princess. _Some like them. This one does._

Zelda watched with mirth in her eyes. “Why does he do that? Lick you, I mean.”

The hero glanced down at his now damp shirt from where his horse had left drool behind, seemingly unbothered by it. He spent enough time in the stable, she supposed, to be used to their byproducts.

_I think it is a nursing thing?_ He signed, holding out his palm for the horse to lick again. _I am not really sure. Most do it, Galen just happens to do it a lot more._

The Princess thought it was cute - it made Galen look less like a horse and more like a dog. Then again, his temperament might as well suggest he was a dog in at least a past life. The horse followed Link around without being led, would follow paths without command, would come when called whenever the Champion whistled a certain way. He had even come to the man’s rescue once or twice, trampling a bokoblin that got too close to the camp.

Link offered his hand, the one not covered in horse slobber, as he always did to help her mount, and the Princess gratefully took it. Storm was rather tall, and sometimes it was a little undignified to try to clamber her way into the saddle without help. Surely it wasn’t the horse’s favorite thing either, the way she hung off of one side of his back trying to get on him. She used to take pride in it, though, and would outright refuse anyone’s help, insisting she was perfectly capable of getting herself on top of her own horse. Now, though, she just liked having an excuse for Link to grab her by her sides and lift. It was also much more efficient and comfortable this way.

They continued eastwards for another several hours, pausing to wonder to themselves why they hadn’t rode the extra twenty minutes or so from the Proxim Bridge to the Dueling Peaks Stable just a little farther, but decided the hubbub of such a popular rest stop wasn’t something they wanted to deal with anyway. On their way past the settlement, Rensa waved at the Champion from the cooking pot out front of the stable, and Link returned his gesture with a smile. Before he could start a conversation though, the two proceeded up the path that would loop around the Ash Swamp and the Blatchery Plains. 

After reaching Fort Hateno, the two found themselves watching the sun begin to go down. They were in the final stretch of their journey, so they figured that it wasn’t worth stopping for the night when they only had about an hour or two left of their ride. 

The horses began to become uneasy as they passed through the path that led somewhat underneath the Cliffs of Quince, their ears pointed straight forward and a twitch in their step with every heavy footfall. Worried that Storm might get any ideas about ducking out, Link had them stop for a moment to attach a lead to his bridle, and the rest of the way they rode side by side. Zelda appreciated his help with her steed for more reason than just because she was worried her horse may run off with her, but also because she was beginning to feel drowsy. They had ridden the entire day, and now that the sun couldn’t be seen as the cliffs blocked her view, it only increased the flow of melatonin.

The Princess told herself she would power through this final stretch though, reminding herself that she couldn’t just fall asleep in the saddle. That was dangerous enough as it was. Besides, Link would need help getting the house in order when they arrived.

Finally, they reached the Ginner Woods, and the girl breathed a deep sigh of relief. She glanced at her companion at her side, and was surprised to find that he looked every bit as awake as he always did. She supposed that he must have been used to sleepless nights, seeing as though he had countless of them after reawakening. It reminded her of what Impa had told her - that he had been roused from night terrors, and she wondered if memories of them still plagued him. 

That would certainly explain why he was so good at handling himself on so little sleep. But in her experience, she didn’t really recall ever hearing him wake up in a fit. Even after Ganon’s defeat when they had shared a year venturing through Hyrule trying to piece together the few scraps that had still existed of the kingdom, she had never seen him in such a way. But then again, he was always the last one to sleep, and the first to wake up, often having already taken down the camp before she woke.

She also hadn’t seen him struggle with it whenever they spent a night together. Not that there were too many - she could count them on her hands, actually - but enough that she thought that if he were to still have nightmares like she did about one hundred years ago, or even just two after his Sleep, it would be likely that she would have seen it by now. Though, she found that finding comfort in him had quelled her bad dreams, so maybe that was how it worked for the Champion as well. 

Goddesses, she hoped so. But maybe that was just wishful thinking. 

Zelda snapped herself out of her thoughts as they passed under the archway gate of Hateno Village, sighing contentedly at the sight of the soft glow of the torchlight that illuminated its stony pathways. She could never decide whether Hateno or Lurelin was her favorite, but the happy and quaint atmosphere brought with those towns was incomparable to anything else, and brought her such joy every time she set foot in their territories. 

Link veered them off the main path to the right, and his house came into view quickly. The Princess had been here only a few times, and she had to stop and admire it each time. It was cute with a rustic look to it with its old age. She did, however, get a bit of a kick out of the sign in front of it, and couldn’t help but chuckle as they passed it. The Champion steered them towards the right of the cottage where the makeshift stables were. When they dismounted, Zelda helped him tie the horses to the hitch and remove all the tack and saddlebags. She took these inside while Link began fetching hay and water for their mounts.

It took three trips to get everything in, only being able to carry two saddlebags and a saddle at a time. She peeked her head out of the door and around the corner to see if he was done taking care of the animals, but he had disappeared from sight. The Princess sighed as she kicked the door closed behind her, breathing in the musty air of the little house.

Nothing had changed much about it since the last time she was here - the shelves were all set the same way with the same books in the same places. The gear displays had collected dust on them, but the weapons inside seemed just as intact as they always had. Zelda looked upon them melancholically, remembering the faces of the people that used to carry these relics. He had saved all of their weapons and shields appropriately, preserved for as long as he possibly could preserve them. 

She turned around, surveying the rest of the area. There was a small and low table in the center of the room, and tucked into the tiny corner beneath the loft was something of a kitchen. Boxes were haphazardly stacked underneath the stairs, and the Princess wondered what was inside of them briefly. 

But setup had to come first, no matter how curious she was. She began rifling through their bags, setting them in places that made sense so they could unload when they were less tired. The satchel full of rations was tossed onto the counter, the bag of research materials was hauled up the stairs to the desk in the loft and set to lean against the legs of the piece of furniture, and his personal knapsack was respectfully placed on his dresser. 

Zelda turned towards the bed, sighing as she allowed her body to fall heavily onto the mattress. Even though she knew her guard had not been spending nights in his house, she could still catch his faint scent on the sheets, and she basked in it for a moment. If she could fall asleep and wake up like this for the rest of her life, she thought would be the happiest person alive.

The door creaked open, and she opened her eyes briefly. Peeking over the banister, she watched as Link dusted his palms off on his trousers, looking around before glancing up and catching her eye. He smiled softly, and suddenly she saw the exhaustion in his face. 

The Champion bounded up the creaky wooden stairs as Zelda fell back again against the sheets, taking note of where she had temporarily placed all the bags. When he reached the end of the bed, he turned around, unfurled his arms, and fell backwards himself, hitting the bed with a _whumf._

She sighed, feeling the weight of her eyelids. “Are the horses settled?” She mumbled after a moment.

Link nodded, straining his neck for a moment as he undid his ponytail before allowing it to fall back again.

The Princess hummed in reply, happiness glowing within her at his proximity. Her peace was disturbed, however, by his heavy movement and two hands scooping her up from under her armpits only to be dragged towards the top of the bed. When she eyed him curiously, he let go of her to sign, _You should rest._

“You do not have to tell me twice,” Zelda said softly, giggling when she saw him grin and look away. She felt him begin to adjust the heavy cotton sheets over her, and she smiled as she watched with half-lidded eyes. “We should change first, shouldn’t we?” She asked.

Link grunted, falling face-first onto the sheets beside her and the Princess laughed. 

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Maybe not.”

The Champion rolled slightly, reaching out hesitantly to gather her up in his arms. He collected her against his chest, and Zelda breathed in his scent through his blue tunic. The boy nuzzled the top of her head, sighing deeply as he wiggled himself beneath the covers as well. 

The blonde had to remind herself that she had a plan this week - one that even through the fog of exhaustion she could clearly see. She knew that in just a few short months things would change drastically, and she was ready to accept that. However, she wanted to take advantage of the freedom she would have in the time she had left. 

She enjoyed his company as much as it seemed he enjoyed hers, and they were a couple, weren’t they? Maybe not publicly, but certainly privately. So in light of this, she wanted to spoil him as much as she could. Starting, of course, with this week. Zelda knew that just because she cut her hair did not mean that people wouldn’t recognize her. Her horse looked royal, outfitted with all of his gear, and she still wore the same garb she always did. She hoped, at least, that people would have to squint or take a second look in order to recognize her. After all, spending the week trying to do typical citizen things trying to hide from the rest of the village sat quite sourly on her tongue.

The house was separate from the rest of the village, just east and across the small bridge over the shallow gorge. To her knowledge, they were completely out of earshot, and the solitude brought her excitement. For as strange of a concept as it was to her, the Princess was ready for this domesticity. She wasn’t so prideful or arrogant that she wouldn’t get her hands dirty to live like anyone else of the commonwealth would, so she resolved that until they left Hateno she would just have to get Link to relax enough to stop acting like a guard. 

It was only for seven days, after all. In the safest village around to boot. 

As Zelda allowed her mind to wander as she felt sleep weigh on her eyelids, she felt her companion’s breath even out, fanning across the top of her head steadily. He had barely managed to remove the Master Sword from around him, and the Princess was sure it was somewhere on the floor on his side of the bed. 

The warmth of his body was overpowering, and even though the cold had not yet set in, Zelda found herself trying to envelope her body in that feeling. Outside, the crickets chirped noisily, and she could hear the leaves rustling as they fought against the breeze. 

This was perfect, she decided. 

Everything was perfect.

\--

As birds began to sing, their songs drifted in through the slightly open window that the Princess hadn’t noticed when they had arrived the night before. Without opening her eyes, she snuggled closer to the broad chest in front of her, feeling the hand around her waist twitch and the knight take a deep breath above her. She stilled, waiting to see if she had woken him, but when he relaxed again and let out a content sigh into the hair on the top of her head, she blew out a soft sigh of relief. 

Now somewhat awake, she cracked her eyes open and found herself staring at his blue Champion’s Tunic, wrinkled and bunched where he lay on his side. His long hair fell over his shoulder, and rose and fell with the same tempo as his deep breaths. 

The Princess sat up, thankful that she had to do minimal detangling as she did. Unlike the last time, her legs had not crossed with his in their sleep, and it was only his arms that she had to gently pry off of her. She swept the room with drowsy irises, falling onto the clock on the desk a meter away from the base of the bed. It was barely five in the morning, but already there was an orange glow seeping through the panes of glass across from them on the wall. 

She looked back at the sleeping man beside her, amused at the expression on his face that was somewhat covered by hair. His mouth was slightly ajar, and his cheek squished against the pillow. Affectionately, she reached out to gently swipe away the bangs, an indescribable feeling of fondness constricting her chest. 

Zelda slowly removed herself from the mattress, careful not to wake the Champion by moving too suddenly. Her goal was the only thing in mind as she crept down the creaky stairs, unclasping her hood that she had forgotten to take off the night before and draping it over the seat of the desk. She shook out her head, marveling at how much lighter it was now that her hair had been cropped. It was strange feeling all of her hair move with her as she shook it out, lifting a hand to comb through it before letting it fall again. 

She swung her way into the makeshift kitchen, eyeing the satchel of provisions they had brought with them and that she had tossed onto the counter before sleeping. She peeled the sides back, peeking into it. There were several apples and miscellaneous fruits, but also things wrapped in parchment that she could only assume were salted meat or fish. Several small jars of spices also lined the bottom, each labeled in Link’s terrible handwriting. Lastly, there was a small sack of rice and several bundles of wheat.

Plucking each thing from its place in the bag, the Princess started opening cabinets to see if there were already things inside of them. Except for some stacked kitchenware items such as a rundown pot, a few knives, odd-looking silverware, plates, and a pan, there were not. So, with no rules set in place for what went where, she unloaded the contents of the bag into each tiny pantry. They hadn’t brought much with them since they had planned to hunt or buy food this week, so whatever they had taken with them had likely been intended to be eaten on their way to Hateno. Whatever the case, they had extra.

Part one of her plan was to make the Champion a meal for a change. She wasn’t completely inept at cooking, even if she lacked the finer art of it that her knight seemed to be so good at. She grabbed one of the parchment-wrapped provisions and opened it up as quietly as she could. It looked like beef, but in all honesty Zelda was no expert on identifying any sort of meat, so whatever it was was just going to have to be for breakfast. 

Thankfully the pan was in such a position that it wouldn’t clatter as it was taken out of its place in the shelves of its storage compartment as long as she was careful, and she held her breath as she rotated it so that it wouldn’t catch the edge of the wooden frame. There was kindling in the corner of the kitchen, wrapped neatly in a bundle that looked as if it had sat there without use for a rather long while. Zelda grabbed some of it, snapping the branches and flinching at the sharp sounds, but breathed a sigh of relief when she did not hear the man stir above her. The wood, now in much smaller, manageable pieces, were stacked in the small dip in the stovetop, and she fished a piece of flint he had on a nearby shelf that looked as if it had been used maybe once too often, striking it with one of his knives. The stove lit, and she mentally congratulated herself.

Cutting the meat with the same knife she used to light the stove, she sliced it into neat strips, laying them flat into the pan off to the side. The meat was already salted, but she sprinkled it with some of the spices in the small jars they had brought with them. In all honesty, she didn’t quite know what she had put onto them, though, because it was labeled with chicken scratch. When she stuck a small bit of it into her mouth though, it wasn’t anything horrible, so she decided it was safe enough. 

As soon as the pan was put onto the stove, the smell of meat began to slowly fill the air. She knew that it wouldn’t be long before the ravenous, void of a stomach that was her guard would stalk down the stairs in search of food, so whatever else she was going to make had to be started now. 

Even though there wasn’t much in the way of breakfast-type foods that they had brought with them, she figured that you could never go wrong with some fruit in the morning, so she grabbed the pot, setting the other side of the stove alight the same way she had before, and began peeling and cutting a few apples. 

All that was left now was the real surprise, and she felt giddy remembering what this entailed. With the food cooking now, she crept back up the stairs and stole off with her personal satchel and her cloak, peeking over her shoulder as she descended to the first floor yet again. The Champion had rolled onto his back, his arms splayed out to the sides, but as far as Zelda could tell, Link was still asleep.

As soon as she reached the bottom floor, she peeled off her clothes, folding them neatly and setting them on his table. Her face felt hot knowing that she wasn’t behind any closed doors (were there any actual rooms in his house besides the tiny bathhouse in the shed behind the hitches for the horses?), but she persevered as she dug through her bag and fished out what she had in mind. Her eyes bore holes through the white lacy brassiere and underwear held up in her hands, her cheeks an impossible shade of red that didn’t match at all. White was supposedly the color of innocence. Was it really appropriate that she wear this with the intentions she had? 

Actually, nothing about that was appropriate at all, and her face would have flushed even darker if it was possible. 

So she slipped into the two-piece, blushing furiously as she draped the cloak around her shoulders and tied the smaller strings attached to the lower half of the garment so as not to give away her intentions right away. She scurried back over to the food, gently removing two plates and enough silverware for them both as she divided the meal into two. She knew Link preferred protein, and opted to let him have most of what she had made. It wasn’t very likely that Zelda would eat as much as she had given herself anyway, and she knew from experience that the Champion had no shame in picking off of hers. 

The stovetops were promptly extinguished, and with the plates of food in her hand and the cloak protecting her decency for the most part, she padded up the stairs and glanced at her guard. He hadn’t moved from before, still splayed on his back with his arms spread out to his sides. 

Swallowing the nervous lump in her throat, the Princess took steps full of fake confidence, and set the two plates on the bedside stand, and found herself at the base of the mattress. She felt a little strange suddenly, standing there in nothing but a cloak to cover her indecency. What if he thought it was strange? 

Zelda shook the thought out of her mind. No - she knew he would be fine with this. Maybe a little shocked at first, but the guard’s libido was definitely healthy enough that she was confident he’d enjoy himself.

Besides, her whole plan was to spoil him. And spoil him she would.

She slowly crept onto the mattress, climbing up his body until she could perch herself on his upper thighs with her legs straddling his sides. The moment the soft cushions below them shifted, the guard’s eyes flew open. He scrambled for a moment, registering that he was somewhat pinned down, but the second his eyes met hers, he visibly relaxed. 

“G-good morning,” Zelda stuttered, her face hot. 

Link’s own face burned five shades redder, his ears twitching nervously as they pinkened at the tips. He lifted his hands and signed the same thing back, only he did it so quickly that anyone else may have missed what he had tried to say.

“I, um, made you breakfast,” the Princess continued, all of her confidence blown out the window. Her plan was technically still in motion, even if she pictured this going a lot smoother in her head than how it was actually going so far. She leaned over him, and Link sat back to give her space. Her fingers grasped the edge of his plate, and she returned to her previous position, this time with food in her hands.

As if abruptly pulled out of his trance, his eyes snapped to the plate of food, only to drift right back up to meet her gaze once again. Her green eyes caught a slight movement on his neck, and she watched as his Adam's Apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly. His hands were completely still at his sides, twitching as if he wasn’t sure what to do with them. Finally, though, he took the plate of food from her gratefully, but he didn’t actually look away from her. 

Zelda felt like she was drowning in the blues of his eyes, deftly watching from her periphere as he set the plate back down on the bedside cabinet, and moved his hand up slightly to cup her face. His touch was hesitant at first, a question in his eyes as she crawled over him. His thumb brushed soothingly against the pointed tips of her ears, and she shuddered at the feeling, endorphins beginning their rush through her veins.

Below her, she could feel his response as well, humming low in her throat as his other hand came up to rest on her hip over her cloak.

“Aren’t you going to eat what I made you?” The Princess asked innocently as her free hand planted itself on his chest, splaying her palm across his clothed sternum.

The man grunted below her, and she knew full well that even if he wanted to respond, they would have to separate, and Zelda wasn’t going to have that. Having gotten past the hard part, the part where she was unsure whether or not he would reciprocate, confidence surged through her veins. Her hand drifted downwards slowly as she leaned down to place a chaste kiss on his lips, her fingers bumping over every hard line of muscle definition beneath the clothing. She wanted to strip it all off - wished she could feel his body heat and his pulse beneath his skin as she gouged each of his reactions, but that would ruin her fun.

Her kiss was merely a brush against his chapped lips with her own, and she felt pride rise in her chest as he tried to chase after her when she separated. As her hand dragged down his broad chest, his breathing became more and more labored, and she could feel his erection twitching against her thigh. He didn’t seem to be fully hard yet, having only been getting shot with arousal for the past few minutes.

To remedy that, the Princess grinned wickedly as her fingers brushed against his belt, tugging teasingly at the tough leather. Link clenched his eyes shut, his hand fisting in the fabric of her cloak tightly as his other hand that had been left cupping her cheek desperately clung to the dark blues of the hood that hung at her shoulder. His head fell back against the pillows as she pulled the buckle loose, his chest heaving with every small movement of her fingers. 

The power she held over him now was what kept her going, wanting to simply dig into what was in front of her. But she had to remind herself that this was dessert, even if they were cheating and eating it right before supper. Zelda wanted to drive him wild - to push his boundaries and see where exactly she had to get him before he went absolutely feral. How strong were the bindings on his self control, she wondered. Desperately, more than anything in the world right now, she wanted to find out.

The hands he had dug into her cloak reached up as she laid yet another slow and innocent kiss on his lips, grasping at the small clasp that held it together. A part of her wanted to shoo his hands away and insist that she wasn’t done with her fun yet, but another part of her wanted him to see the treat she had hidden from him beneath the soft fabric.

Seeing as though her hands were already busy, she allowed him to brush the cloak off of her shoulders, reveling in the heat left behind as his fingers traveled over the bare skin. The air felt cool against her hot skin, and she shivered at his touch. Her tongue swiped along his lower lip, and the moment he gasped she coaxed his mouth open enough to invite herself in, running the muscle along his teeth and finally against his own. 

Link shifted beneath her, his hands insistently grabbing at her waist. The Princess felt him push against her, and she realized a second later that he was trying to flip them. 

She had allowed him to remove her cloak from her, but this was where she drew the line. Right now, this was going to be about him, and surely if he had his way he would have made it about her if he had been successful in turning the tides.

Zelda sunk more weight down onto him, swiveling her hips against his pelvis. They both moaned at the feeling, but her actions had the desired effects. 

Their faces separated as the Princess drew herself upwards slightly, nibbling at his bottom lip as she went. She leaned down again, this time to the side of his head and right by her ear, where she whispered, “I am not done with you yet.” She made it a point to palm him through his half-undone trousers as she said this, and Link made a feral noise from deep in his chest. His hips bucked upwards to meet her hand, and Zelda resisted the temptation to give into his desires.

So her hand lifted away from him, leaving him to thrust up again into the air as his hands clawed the cloak the rest of the way off. But when his fingers met frilly lace, the Champion paused to open his eyes and strain his neck in an attempt to look at her. 

Now that she was sure he was aware of his treat, she sat completely upright, eyes half-lidded as she stared down at the warrior beneath her. His gaze was transfixed to her form, drinking in every detail as if committing it to memory. Link’s hands reached out, brushing the tips of his fingers over the flimsy material as he swallowed thickly.

“Do you like it?” Zelda marveled at herself, full of disbelief that even through her self-consciousness she had managed not to stutter. She knew his answer even before he said it, feeling his member jump beneath her as he groaned approvingly.

The Princess made sure to reward him with a firm stroke against his shaft through the rough fabric of his trousers, and the Champion’s head tipped backwards as he fell back against the pillows once more. He grasped awkwardly at the brassiere, and finally she batted his hands away, taking his wrists and placing them on her hips where he could touch without distracting her.

Finally the belt was tugged off, and the Princess tossed it to the side. It fell off the edge of the bed and clattered against the wood floor, but both were too lost in each other to register any background noise. Link’s eyes were still glued to her body, and would only move or flutter shut whenever her hand brushed against his groin.

Zelda picked at the button of his trousers, drinking in the sound of his frustrated grunt pulled from his throat. The hands at her hips gripped her tightly as if clinging to her for dear life. As her fingers finally began pulling down his pants, he helpfully lifted his hips in order to help her pull them down. When they reached his calves he kicked them off clumsily, and the Princess giggled at his enthusiasm. 

She ducked her head to kiss him once again, and amusement swam in her chest when his lips all but crashed into hers. The Champion tried again to wrestle control away from her, starting by pushing his tongue into her mouth before she had the chance. Zelda schooled him back by taking his length, still covered in the tight fabric of his boxers, into her hot palm and sliding it upwards.

Link huffed out the rest of the air from his lungs suddenly, his brow furrowing and his abdomen clenching as he tried to thrust up into her touch. The Princess took this opportunity to slip her tongue into his mouth, moaning at how the hard length beneath her hand made arousal punch her in the gut.

As her fingers played at the seam of his tip through his boxers, she gently bit at his lower lip as she began to pull back, opening her eyes to be met with a heated look from her partner below her. His face was pinched with the effort it was taking to control himself, his brows knotted and his eyes squinted. She tenderly pushed the bangs out of his face with her free hand as she wrapped her other around his member and gently squeezed. Linik let out a breathless whine deep in his throat that set fire to the Princess’s insides.

She reattached her mouth to him, this time once at the side of his lips, then along his jawline, and continued up towards his ear. Her mouth was scalding against his skin, grazing her teeth and soothing back over it with a long pull of her tongue. Link felt helpless under her touch, so willing to fall into the maw of pleasure that she had opened to him. With every soft brush of her fingertips another rush of satisfaction ripped through him, and it took all of his willpower not to take back control. 

It was a strange power struggle he was fighting within himself, wanting desperately to return what she was giving him tenfold, but also wanting to follow her rules and allow himself to kick back and enjoy. Which he was. Fully. Truly. He couldn’t imagine anything better, honestly. But he also wanted her to know just how much she meant to him, and simply sitting there groaning into her skin while he could only clutch at her hips with every slide of her hand wasn’t how he could repay this.

Again, he tried to gently push against her, wanting more than anything to make her cry his name and bring her to climax again and again, but was halted abruptly at the feeling of her hot palm stroking down his length all at once. A strangled moan passed his lips, and the Princess hummed into his ear. Her own arousal was becoming difficult to ignore; every sound he made shot straight southwards, and she shuddered as she felt a bead of precum slip down his length and gather where her fingers met his flesh. 

Her body, mostly supported by the man beneath her, rose and fell with every labored breath the Champion took, and she fidgeted when he twitched in her hand and one of his knees bent behind her. His thigh now fit between her legs, and she used this opportunity to grind down on him, hissing out her pleasure directly against the shell of his ear. The Princess’s hand faltered for only a moment before abandoning all the teasing she had been doing up until then. She took him fully, wrapping her palm around him and gently squeezing as she began fisting him up and down. 

Link choked, his hands scrambling at her sides as he held onto her tightly. As if clawing for something he might die without, he frantically began pulling at her brassiere, but Zelda didn’t bother correcting this as she was too lost in the sensation of maddeningly soft pressure against her lace-clit with every swivel of her hips against his leg. 

The Champion pulled off the frilly garment, attaching his mouth to the column of her throat as he immediately grabbed at her soft breasts. She keened as he kneaded the fleshy globes and laid a hickey directly under her chin, unafraid that anyone who mattered might see it for a change. His teeth sunk into her soft skin, nibbling and sucking until it ached slightly before lifting away from her with an exaggerated sound of suction. 

Zelda’s hand moved faster now, trying her hardest to make use of what little knowledge she possessed of what he liked. Her palm twisted slightly as it came down, and he would buck into her grasp as she pulled off of him quickly. Her thumb swiped across his tip every few pumps, and Link would pull and pinch at her nipples as if trying to return the same feeling. Her hips thrust shallowly against his leg, chasing after a fleeting pleasure that she knew wasn’t going to be enough in the end. The sensation was addictive, though, and she couldn’t stop now. 

What they were doing was almost animalistic. There was no rhythm or sense to how they were chasing their highs - just that they were running blindly towards it. Link, at least, seemed like he was getting closer to finishing, the telltale signs of his involuntary bucking upwards into her fist becoming more frequent and sporadic. His chest heaved, and he could no longer commit himself to giving her any more hickeys because without tipping his head back with his mouth slightly open, he probably wouldn’t be able to breathe. 

Instead, he filled his palms with the soft globes of her breasts - kneading, pulling, and squeezing them. Zelda, now somewhat accustomed to the feeling of his rough hands against the sensitive flesh of her chest, could only arch into the sensation. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that maybe he was being just a little too rough with her, his motions sometimes leaving behind an ache like where he had left marks. She wondered briefly if they would leave small bruises, but the thought was pushed far into the back of her mind with the pleasure that came in quick succession. Sparks of electricity shot down her spine with every tug on her nipple, and the searing heat of his tongue against her throat catapulted her mind into somewhere foggy.

The Princess was granted reprieve for all of a few seconds when the boy shuddered violently, his abdomen flexing with how he was trying to hold on. Her wrist felt somewhat disconnected from her body as she kept up the pace of her fist, the joint numb and clumsy. It didn’t seem to matter, though, because as the pad of her finger swiped across his slit Link seized with a low growl caught in his throat. 

He tapped against her side once, and the Princess wondered why through the fog of her consciousness, but the way his strong thighs tensed underneath her reminded her what that little signal meant. 

Link was close.

Pride swelled in her chest, and she reluctantly removed herself from how she was leaning over her companion. The Champion seemed to want to follow, his face pinched as he tried to contain himself. She panted shallowly, gazing down at the man below her. 

It was certainly a picture to behold. He was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, his hands that were previously on her body now fell to his sides, and his hair haloed his handsome face. Blue eyes tried to meet hers, but could only focus so well as her hand continued to work him towards completion, and he grunted as his head fell back. 

The legs she was perched on were still flexed, and Zelda grinded down against them again, desperate to quell the throb that had settled between her legs. She moaned weakly as the pressure subsided the least bit, and Link’s blue eyes flew open to take in the sight of his princess rubbing herself against his leg. Again, his abdomen tensed as a deep hum reverberated through his chest. 

A rough hand flew to tap her once on the knee by his side, grinding his teeth as a feral desire yanked against the restraints of his self control. He could feel her dampness through the flimsy lace underwear, and he wanted them _off._ He wanted his shirt _off_ so that his body temperature might go down, and he might get impossibly closer to the goddess on top of him. He wanted every inch of skin to touch at once, to press against her and drive her wild. 

But those were only dreams, because currently he was the one being had. However, his end was in sight. It was fast approaching, too. The coil in his belly was wound tight, and grew closer and closer to bursting with every quick pull of her palm against his shaft. Each time her finger traced the line under the mushroom head, his breath would get caught in his throat, and he would have to struggle to bring in a strangled gasp as his oxygen was used up immediately. 

Zelda’s arm was getting tired now, and she wondered if he had somehow managed to increase his stamina. After all, they weren’t shy about doing this anymore, and whenever opportunity arose, they were both quick to jump on it. It seemed as if Link had completely let go of his little rule book from a few months ago, and the Princess thanked the goddesses every day for that. It was infuriating at the time, even if it was one of the sweetest, most heart-warming things about their current situation. 

Besides, it was much more fun letting loose.

Below her, Link found himself trembling for a moment as his entire body chased after his orgasm. He growled lowly as he finally reached the precipice and fell in, his head slamming back against the soft pillows as his hands curled into fists and his hips thrust upwards. Zelda watched with unbridled fascination and hunger as he spilled over her fingers, hot cum dribbling down her appendages temptingly. She did her best this time to make sure he didn’t flinch away from her touch after he finished, opting instead to help him ride out his orgasm and stop as soon as he was done.

So when his body fell limp against the sheets, his chest heaving, Zelda allowed him a moment of respite to recover, slipping her hands under his shirt that she had neglected to remove and splaying her fingers across his abdomen. When she glanced back down at his member, she had expected it to deflate like it normally did, but she was surprised to find that he was still hard, and it twitched against his navel. 

Suddenly, rough hands took her shoulders, and the Princess looked down through her haze of arousal and met dark, predatory blue eyes. Retaliating for what seemed like the tenth time, she pinned him down with a definitive hand against the center of his chest. She knew that he could easily turn the tables even with her resistance, but she knew that he wouldn’t. Link knew when not to argue, even if he was desperate to devour the feast laid before him.

He groaned in frustration, fed up with simply laying their and taking without paying forward his debt. The Princess giggled and leaned forward, her hair falling to surround her face. The braid that she had that crowned her head had gone loose from sleeping with it on, but a bit of it remained tied at the top of her head, and she felt the tension of the strands as she looked straight down into the Champion’s eyes. 

“Now you may touch,” she whispered, ghosting her lips across his own.

Link didn’t need to be told twice, his hands cascading down her form to pull at her underwear. Simultaneously, the Princess tugged at his tunic, and the Champion shucked it quickly as they maneuvered to sit up. 

Zelda squeaked as the sudden sensation of calloused fingers leaping to her soft lower curls, moaning softly as his fingers wasted no time in circling and flicking at her clit. His thumb continued to play with the bundle of nerves, driving her wild as she ground down on his index and middle finger that were fishing through her folds. When they prodded at her entrance, her inner walls contracted instinctively, and Link growled at how wet she had become.

He coated the tips of his fingers in her moisture, his mouth seeking hers out as he delved inside of her. Her moan was swallowed, a sweet sound that made the man shudder. His hand not busy pleasing her was fisted into her hair just below her ear, keeping her face pressed against his as he coaxed more sounds from her. 

Keening at the feeling of his fingers grazing the sensitive spot within her that he was only able to reach by crooking his fingers in such a way, her legs began to tremble, and her hands tangled into his hair as she held on for dear life. 

Having teased him for so long, she was incredibly pent up, and even watching her companion reach completion had pleasure coursing through her system, so she knew it wasn’t going to take long before she fell over her own edge. Her eyes fluttered closed as she concentrated on the raw feeling of flesh against her most private area, gasping through his mouth as the weight of his tongue settled against her own. 

The moment he added a third finger, it was over. The slight burn that accompanied the stretch as her tight channel accommodated for more was all it took for the tense wire within her to snap. She had to pull away from their kiss in order to breathe as she rocked against his hand and let out a high-pitched moan. His fingers continued stroking her, allowing her to ride through her pleasure as it crashed down over her wave after wave. Link grunted at the feeling of her fingers tightening in his hair and her walls closing over his fingers, but he wanted to see more. She had had her fun, and now it was most definitely his turn. 

Finally, _finally,_ with a great swing of his legs, he catches Zelda off-balance long enough to bring himself on top of her. She lands in the soft sheets with a _whuff_ that rushes out of her lungs, and when she opens her mouth to protest, she finds something animalistic and primal in his eyes. Gone was his typical happy glint - replaced entirely with something carnal and dangerous. His hands pin her shoulders to the mattress as he ducks down with a deep growl to attach himself to her neck once again, and she feels a tremendous shudder rake down her body. 

His fingers, having momentarily pulled out in order to flip them, were now right back where they belonged, and the Princess yelped at the tingles of oversensitivity that zipped up her spine. Normally such a sound might have deterred Link - at least made him hesitate little - but he only bit into her soft flesh in retaliation as his hips dipped to thrust shallowly against her thigh. She didn’t have much time to think too hard about his impressive refractory period, andZelda whined high in her throat, throwing her head back as she grasped at his biceps that kept him from completely crushing her beneath his weight. 

Everything was too much and not enough all at once. She wanted desperately to become impossibly closer to him, even as her body arched into his. The heat of his body radiated and melted into her own, but it wasn’t enough. The searing temperature of his mouth against her skin kept her mind from finding solid ground, and the numbingly sweet but prickly sensation of his fingers brushing against her spent walls kept her spiraling farther and farther down into this great mental hole. 

“Please,” she whispered, her fingers finding purchase on his upper arm, the tips digging into the scarred flesh. Her legs trembled with something she couldn’t quite place. Part of her never wanted his hands to ever leave, but another told her that with every stroke against her inner walls that there was an underlying ache.

Link growled once more, thrusting wholeheartedly against her thigh once before detaching himself from her for a few moments. Dazed, Zelda looked up, and the hungry beast looking down at her made her softly moan as a full-body shiver shook her to her core. 

The Champion took his member, red and hard by his abdomen, and leaned back down to look her straight in the eyes as he lined himself up. When the blunt tip bumped against her sensitive folds, Zelda keened, wrapping her legs around his waist to encourage him further. 

For the first time, Link wasn’t as gentle as he pushed in. He didn’t slam into her like she thought he might have after having lost so much control over himself, but it wasn’t gentle and slow like he always had before. Instead, it was one very long, very steady drag of flesh against flesh as his hips pushed forward fluidly. The Princess choked audibly, winding her arms around him like she normally did. 

But before she could scramble for purchase against his already scratched-up back, one of his hands seized her wrists, pinning them to the pillow above her head. She gasped as he bottomed out, feeling helpless under his powerful grasp. The tables had fully turned, but she wasn’t disliking it. 

“Link,” Zelda mewled as he pulled back halfway and thrust home in one fell swoop. He grunted with the impact, and the Princess heard the lewd, wet slap of his balls against her with every forward motion. 

Her mouth agape, Link ducked to shove his tongue into her mouth as the Princess tried desperately not to get lost in the endless abyss of sensation she was swimming through. The kiss was all teeth and tongue, awkwardly maneuvering around each other as they tried to press closer. Her breasts pressed against his chest, and with each piston of his hips, her nipples tingled as they brushed against the scarred skin. 

Link’s right hand tried to abandon her wrists, instead attaching to her side and trying to worm his way between them in order to fist his palm into the soft globes of her chest, but she let out a protest of a whine when she felt some of his body heat lift from her own. Instead, he opted to grasp at one of her thighs, tugging on it incessantly. With nothing to do but comply, she allowed herself to be manipulated, his palm pressing into the back of her leg as he pushed her knee outwards and towards her chin. 

Thank Hylia she was flexible, because otherwise this may have been pretty awkward. But, oh, that angle was _so much better._ Link groaned low in his throat as he managed to push deeper into her, kissing her cervix with the tip of his length each time he plowed home.

Zelda could no longer formulate coherent speech. Broken versions of his name passed her lips, or were swallowed by the man above her, but the rest of it was intangible wanton cries. Part of her didn’t recognize her own voice, pleading in a way that no one would understand for him to never stop. 

The Princess did her best to meet his thrusts halfway, trying desperately to maneuver against him in a way that would make their reconnection harder and more dead-on. She was unfathomably close - a string pulled so taught that its strands were beginning to fray - but it was like there was something missing. A desperate tear dropped down her face as they separated for air, damn near hyperventilating in each others’ faces. His labored breathing ghosted across her face, and she thought she felt a drip of his sweat land against her collarbone. 

Maybe she would have thought this was gross, but quite honestly she couldn’t care in the slightest right now. The angle he hit her at now caused him to brush up against a spot within her that drove her absolutely wild, and she wondered if her partner could tell because it seemed like he was driving her home against that area with every ounce of his power. 

The Champion wheezed as his hips stuttered slightly, and a desperate noise was punched out of her as Zelda felt the edge of her orgasm that had been fast approaching suddenly edge away.

“Gods, Link, _don’t stop._ ” Tears slipped down her cheeks, and the sight of them must have snapped him out of whatever trance he had slipped into. His eyes found recognition again, but the Princess could still tell there was a deep and unsatiated hunger that lay dormant there. 

Suddenly, Link let out a quiet roar, dropping his head to rest against her collarbone as he somehow managed to go faster, his fingers clenching at the flesh of the back of her thigh. Zelda could only arch up into his touch, moaning wantonly as her end came within sight. 

The rough palm abandoned the back of her leg, slipping between them to furiously flick at her clit, and the Princess’s head fell backwards with a silent scream caught in her throat as she clamped down on him. The Champion let out a deep, strangled cry of his own as his pace stuttered again. His thrusts were erratic now without any semblance of pattern or rhythm, but Link was determined to ride this out as long as he could. He didn’t want to hurt her, so the grip on her wrists was loosened as he focused vehemently on holding on, his abdomen so rigid that it hurt. Somehow, though, his erection seemed to ache more, but if he could just hold on for _just a few more seconds…_

Fingers threaded into the wild strands of his hair, scratching against his scalp, and it startled him so deeply that he shot his eyes up to look into the Princess’s below him. 

Awash in a sea of green, captivated by something within them that he simply couldn’t name. They held an authority that made his entire body go very suddenly numb, and it was all he could do to weakly moan as his head fell back down against her. His hips jutted violently once, twice, and then - his least favorite part in all this - _out._

“Let it out,” came the voice below him, and without even a hand to help him through his orgasm, Link’s vision whited out. 

Zelda watched with uninhibited affection as his body seized violently as he let out the most heart-shatteringly perfect moan as hot semen shot against her thigh. He experienced a full-body tremor and shallow twitches of his pelvis as he humped into her leg as he found completion. 

Her fingers carded through his unruly strands, murmuring encouragement as she did. It took a rather long while for him to stop shooting ribbons of ejaculate against her leg, Link shaking and heaving below her. When he finally did, though, he actually collapsed on top of her this time, and the Princess tried not to allow the undignified sound that threatened to punch out of her as his full weight landed squarely on her own. 

Her orgasm had washed away before Link had found his own, so even though she was half-running and barely halfway coherent, she was tenfold as competent as the boy above her was, still awash in shocks of pleasure. She tenderly stroked his head as he violently panted into the hollow of her collarbone, his extremities falling completely limp.

Her eyes closed as she breathed deeply inwards, the post-coital hum of contentment allowing her to feel lost in her own mind. Connected only by the feeling of his hair between her fingers, she was abruptly yanked out of her stupor as he lifted his head from her skin. 

She glanced down, and she noticed that he was struggling to catch his breath just as much as she was. There was emotion that the Princess recognized swimming through his blue irises, and she did her best to return his gaze with just as many feelings. 

Because in his eyes was love; in his eyes was adoration; in his eyes was admiration; in his eyes was complete devotion. Her heart constricted painfully in her chest, and she wanted him to know that she felt exactly the same way; that she would trade anything in the world to be able to properly express just how much she loved him, and that there was absolutely nothing that could ever stop that. So she smiled as softly as she could, and hoped beyond hope that in her own eyes he could see that she reciprocated as much as - if not twice as much - he did. Because language failed to put such love and emotion into words, and trying would be absolutely pointless.

So instead, they could only stare. 

So instead, they could only hope.

So instead, they shared the most private and intimate feelings they could as they bore their souls to each other.

After a beat, the Princess began again the soft caresses against his head that she hadn’t realized she’d halted after meeting his gaze. “Okay?” she murmured as he leaned into her touch.

She felt him nod, felt the rush of warm breath against her bare skin, and felt the exhaustion of their activities wash over her.

“I made breakfast,” she began softly, picking idly at a small knot she found between her fingers. “Although, I think by now it has probably gone cold.”

Link hummed into her skin, the vibrations sending a warm feeling through her entire body. As soon as that bliss went away, though, she realized how gross they were currently. Both were completely covered in sweat, fluid from her orgasm dripping between legs and sticky between her inner thighs. His cum was now cold and strangely gooey against her, and the thought of it caught between them sickened her.

“I think we need a bath. Or at least something to get cleaned up with,” she reasoned quietly as she felt Link’s eyelashes flutter back open. “I feel really gross.”

The knight flew up off of her very suddenly, scrambling backward much in the way he had the night she had woken up with him hard against her back. His hands furiously signed the same thing he had then as well, _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,_ then a more positive, _I will get us something to clean up with temporarily, then I can set you up with a bath._

Mirth bubbled within the Princess, and it surfaced as an undignified laugh that resonated straight from the center of her being. Link’s face reddened as he looked away, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

When she finally rid herself of all of her giggles, she wiped a tear away from her eye as she hummed, “When will you drop all the formalities? It must seem a little ridiculous using them after all of this.”

Link huffed out a sigh, refusing to meet her eyes out of embarrassment. Truly, he was a sight to behold right now. It was hard to remember that once upon a time he had helped take down an ancient evil, because right now he looked like an awkward teenage boy when in reality he hadn’t been that since over a hundred years ago. Of course, neither his body nor mind had aged in his Sleep, so she wondered how much of it really was his awkward teenage side. After all, Link was a year younger than her, and still a teenager.

_I will come back with a cloth,_ he assured her as he snatched his shorts from the ground and tugged them on as he clambered down the stairs, and the Princess watched amusedly as he went. 

This was nice, she thought as she stared up at the ceiling, listening to the bumps and clashing sounds of her knight rushing to the bathhouse out back to grab a clean cloth to wipe themselves down with.This type of domesticity and quiet was exactly what the Princess was looking for. This was exactly what she needed before she was going to be crowned queen.

The intruding thought made her frown as she remembered her responsibilities to her kingdom. She was going to be queen, but people already didn’t seem to like her on the throne as a princess. Was crowning herself going to simply stroke the flame? She wouldn’t be able to know, she supposed, until she returned to the castle. The coronation was announced and broadcast throughout Hyrule the moment they had returned from Zora’s Domain, and right afterward Zelda had been thrown into its planning. That’s when she decided she needed time off, and was luckily granted this respite by her merciful, empathetic court-helpers.

Besides, the only thing Zelda really did was sign off on important documents, decide on smaller-scale decisions, and that would be that. It was strange, really, considering she was the only royalty in power, but, again, she _was_ only the princess. 

_Not for long,_ an intrusive voice reminded her, and she shook her head to silence it. She was thankful for a different kind of interruption now as the Champion thundered up the loft’s steps with a damp cloth in his hand. He half-jogged across the space between them, eyes focused on the bodily fluid that still clung to her skin. The gentle passes of the soft cloth made her sigh, and she smiled at him when she caught his eye.

“Thank you,” she hummed as he continued to work, feeling much better now that his quickly-drying cum was no longer stuck against her body. Her eyelids fluttered shut, and she felt a quick, chapped pressure against her forehead where he laid a soft kiss. The gesture itself was enough to make her heart squeeze, and her chest ached with how infatuated she had become with this boy.

Satisfied with his job, the knight sat back on his heels while the Princess reached for the furs at the end of the bed and pulled them up to regain some semblance of modesty. Link turned to the bedside, eyeing the forgotten and undoubtedly cold plates of food, and took one between his fingers.

“Shit!” Zelda suddenly swore, surprising Link to both ends of the world and back. “I cannot believe I let it just go cold like that,” she whined as if she hadn’t just cursed.

Link’s free hand twisted as it shot up, pressing the back of it against her forehead. He set the plate of food down between them quickly, lifting his hands as he signed, _Are you okay?_

The Princess’s hand flew to her mouth, realizing what she had said. “Oh goddesses, that wasn’t very refined, was it?” she mumbled as her face glowed with embarrassment. “Sorry- I- I just made that- it wasn’t supposed to- it went cold and I completely forgot--” she stammered as the boy in front of her began to laugh. The sound was contagious, but with a dignity to protect, she only leaned forward and gently hit him on the shoulder. “It’s not funny!” She insisted as the knight continued to shake with his laughter.

Zelda finally gave in, melting into a few of her own giggles. Besides, how could she not? Link’s laughter felt like a cool ocean breeze against her ears, and her feelings for this man ran so deep that it was impossible not to want to enjoy that. 

_Sorry, sorry, I just do not think I have ever heard you swear,_ he signed, and the Princess decided she was tired of watching him sign those words. _I am sure it is just as fine now as it was then._ Suddenly he snagged the fork that was on the plate in front of him, and stabbed one of the strips of meat. 

“W-wait it won’t be good anymore!” She cried as the bite was lifted to his mouth. She couldn’t stop him though, and his lips closed around it before beginning to chew. Zelda watched with horror as he did, feeling a little like he was rubbing this in.

_Okay, yeah,_ Link agreed after a second. _It is cold._

“Of course it is, now stop eat--”

_But it is still good. Thank you for making this for us._ He signed quickly before picking up the fork again and taking another bite.

Several emotions welled up to the surface of her being, and Zelda felt powerlessly thankful for Link in that moment. If it showed, he didn't seem to react, and the Princess felt hot tears in her eyes. 

Why was she crying? She was so happy that she could die, so why did she feel so heavy in that moment? She quickly shook them off, refusing to give into such emotions without real reason. Instead, she turned her head away with a blush, and grumbled, “I will not eat it cold.”

When she peeked back towards him, her facade almost entirely collapsed as he grinned back at her. The whole rest of the world seemed to melt away as the warmth of his smile washed over her, and again she felt like crying. She was so in love that it _hurt._ It _physically hurt,_ and she resisted the urge to clutch her chest.

_I will go heat it up for you,_ Link gestured as he made to shove one last bite into his mouth before taking both plates. He hesitated a moment, though, set them down and looked back at her. Do you want to eat here, or come downstairs?

The Princess shook away the cobwebs of her deep thoughts, and made to move her legs, only to find that they were absolutely jelly. Especially the one that he had grabbed and pushed towards her to reach deeper within her, and she felt a pleasant tingle rip through her at the memory. She quickly dismissed that, though, knowing that both of them had to be pretty spent after that, and that neither of them would have it in them to go again. 

“I-” she began, looking away from his eyes. “I do not think… I can make it down the, um, the stairs.” Her voice trailed off as she let the implication sink into the man before her, and if she were looking at him Zelda might have seen the hot blush that spread all the way down to the boy’s neck.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him finish signing that he would be right back before taking both the plates and once again descending the stairs. The next ten minutes were full of clinking noises from the kitchen, and the Princess did her best to reach for her clothes on the floor. They were too far off, it seemed, but the one thing within reach was his Champion’s Tunic, so she snatched that and slipped it over herself. It was rather long, but it did exactly what it needed to do, and she took a moment to breathe in the smell of the fabric.

Salt, leather, metal, and Link flooded her nose, and she closed her eyes blissfully at the familiar scent. It was the same smell that was soaked into the entire house - especially the pillows and the sheets - and the Princess decided that this was by far her favorite. She did have to remind herself, though, that the Champion very likely hadn’t washed this Tunic since at least two days prior, and that it was also very likely dirty. 

Zelda would get clean clothes, though, when her legs decided to work again. After all, she would need to take this off later to bathe, so she was going to change later anyway. For now, this was comfortable enough. Link returned ten minutes later with the plates of food in his hand, now with steam rising from them like they had when Zelda had prepared them before. When he laid eyes upon as he ascended the stairs, the Princess swore she saw him hesitate a moment as something dark passed through his eyes, and she filed that thought away as he hurried over and proffered the plate of food to her. 

_Be careful,_ he signed after settling himself on the bed next to her and setting his own food down for a moment, _it is hot._

“You do not have to rub it in,” she teased as she blew on her food softly. She carefully took the bite into her mouth, and realized suddenly that maybe she should have taste-tested the simmered fruit that accompanied her strips of meat, and recoiled slightly at the overpoweringly sweet flavor of it as it sapped any and all moisture out of her mouth.

Link didn’t seem to mind, however, and was burning through his plate at a steady rate happily. The Princess took another smaller bite from her fork as she watched him, admiring the way that her knight ate. She had always known that he had an appetite that would rival a Hinox’s, but it always staggered her that he didn’t actually _eat_ like one. For all intents and purposes, he had excellent table manners. He never shoveled it into his face, even if it seemed like it because he chewed and swallowed so quickly. He was just… efficient. Not a single thing ever fell off of his fork, and he never took bites that were too big. In fact, he measured each one so that it would always fit perfectly in his mouth, it seemed, and before too long his plate was empty.

Link caught her staring as he was cleaning the plate of some of the sweet sauce left behind by the fruit with his fork, and quickly looked away as if embarrassed. He set his plate down. _What?_ He signed, peeking at her from the corner of his eye like a child who knew they had just been caught doing something they weren’t supposed to. It didn’t help the image that he sat cross-legged with his hands shoved into his lap as well when he was finished signing.

“Oh, nothing,” Zelda quickly waved off. “I was just admiring how well you eat.”

She realized the absurdity of her statement when he gave her a strange, quizzical look. _How well I eat?_ He signed, huffing out a breath of laughter.

“W-well, I just meant, you know, how you, um-- you just are, well, _good_ at it, you know?” She cursed herself for her inability to speak suddenly, repeatedly smashing her head against a desk inwardly.

Link snorted before he began to laugh again, a sound that resonated so deeply within her body that she had to remind herself how to function like a proper human being again.

_You are weird,_ he signed when his hands finally stopped shaking. 

“That is hardly any way to be speaking to your princess!” She said defensively, protecting what little dignity she had left in this situation.

Link only chuckled, leaning towards her to plant another kiss on her forehead. He lingered there for a moment longer than he probably needed to, and Zelda felt a great loss when he pulled back. _What do you want to do today?_ He asked afterwards.

She hummed thoughtfully for a moment. The whole idea of these seven days had completely revolved around her plan, but in the post-coital, thick substance that her mind was still trying to fish itself out of, she drew a blank. Her shoulders shrugged, and Link smiled.

_How about I help you with Storm, then? We could forage afterward so I can make mushroom rice balls for dinner. I also want to try to find some fruit for crepes to make for breakfast tomorrow._

That sounded nice, actually, the Princess thought as she took another bite of her fruit. She wasn’t sure if she could ride for a little while, though, while her legs still felt the way that they did. Zelda told him as much, and he nodded readily.

_We can go in a few hours, then?_ He offered, taking her finished plate as she licked the sweetness off of her fork.

“That sounds good,” Zelda agreed, watching as he stood at the edge of the bed to take the dishes downstairs again. “I want to make a few updates to my journal as well, if that is alright.”

Link gave her a strange look that said _of course it is alright, you goof,_ before nodding again and padding off down the stairs.

Zelda steadied her wobbly legs on the wooden floor of the loft as she gripped onto its guard rail as she made her way over to his desk. It didn’t seem as bad now, her knees only feeling like they would buckle once the moment she stood. Once she was moving around, though, she managed just fine.

Below her, Link started on the dishes, filling the basin up with water he had retrieved from the bathhouse. The plates were cheap porcelain, without the smooth refinement of the castle’s, so it took a little more scrubbing to get anything sticky off of them. He could hear her shuffling around on the loft, and felt a strange pride swell in his chest. He felt a little bad that he had lost as much control as he had, but Zelda hadn’t complained, and he had done a good enough job that she was struggling to walk. The idea warmed his cheeks, and he shook away the thoughts as he refocused on scouring any leftover residue on the plates in front of him.

But there was something else that swelled in his chest as well. A different emotion that so encompassed him that it seemed to make it hard to breathe. He knew what this was like, and had found that simply being in Zelda’s presence always made this sensation feel a little satiated, so he focused on the sound of her movements until they settled. He figured that she probably wouldn’t want to be disturbed in this time, and allowed her privacy while she did whatever it was that she did in those thick, leather-bound notebooks.

Besides, the horses were going to need water and feed, so he scribbled that quickly down on a spare sheet of paper he found stuck in a cabinet next to the table. He quietly came up the stairs and handed her the small note before padding off. He wanted her to know that he hadn’t just left her in the house while he went out, so he figured that the note was the best way to least disrupt her, even if it did mean making her look up from her research. She took it and flipped it open as he went back downstairs, collecting a shirt and some trousers from the dresser on his way down. Both were pulled on him as he collected his hair into his normal ponytail and left out the front door.

He swung around to his left, passing by the stony stairs and heading towards the two makeshift stalls. Both horses were still tied and standing nicely to their hitches, and they both looked up at him as he passed with clear interest. Galen nickered at him familiarly, and Link made sure to rub his fingers into the horse’s forehead affectionately. Storm shook himself out violently, then lifted his leg to paw impatiently at the ground. Link waved a hand at him, hissing at the bad behavior until the white stallion ceased his complaints. He retrieved a small bale of hay for them both to eat from around the house, then dumped, scrubbed, and refilled their water buckets. He knew that Galen wouldn’t go anywhere untied, so he unhitched the horse to allow him the freedom of eating any grass around him when the horse finished his hay. 

Storm, somewhat offended he was not offered the same luxury, stomped noisily, trying to catch the rope that tied him to his hitch between his mouth and pull. Link again waved at the horse to stop this, and Storm let out an indignant snort. Link sighed deeply, closing the gate to the stall for good measure just in case the stallion did manage to get free, and turned his attention to the dark bay who had just finished his last bite of hay. 

The heavy animal lazily strode towards him, and Link sunk into a sitting position as Galen lowered his head and accepted a few pets before nosing off to eat some of the grass around them.

An hour or so had probably passed since he had come outside, and the sun was now starting to warm up the plains. Autumn was beginning to approach, so the sun didn’t have as much bite to it as it normally did. There was a cool breeze as well that Link deeply appreciated, allowing his eyes to close as he simply absorbed the feeling. 

It was nice, knowing that there was another person inside his house, and another horse in his stalls, but watching Galen pick through the grass in front of the hitches forced him to remember what it was like before they had defeated Calamity Ganon. After his house had been completed, he had spent most nights here, and there were many days after injury that he would allow himself time to simply sit in this very spot, watching his horse greedily eat up his lawn. He recalled the empty feeling in his chest that he had experienced then, and he bit the inside of his cheek.

Those were his worst days. By the time he had purchased this home and had begun renovating it, he had only visited three memory locations. His memory was still completely empty, and he had felt impossibly heavy under the weight of what he had to do. He had told himself that he didn’t have to do anything - that he was not at fault for what had happened, and that he didn’t know the people from these memories. Not anymore, at least. But every time he heard her voice, every time he heard the rest of their voices, and he would return to complete consciousness, he would be reminded of his current loneliness. He would be reminded that they were dead, and that the woman whose voice sometimes echoed in his mind was still dying in Hyrule Castle. He would be reminded that she was waiting for him, even if he didn’t fully remember who she was.

After finding each location, Link had crumpled to the ground in a fit of tears and sometimes blood, sobbing hysterically with grief from a place he didn’t recognize. He knew that these people were once a part of his life, but he simply _didn’t know them now._ If not for the flashes of his brain as his scattered memories bombarded him every time he reached a location, he would never have been able to put a face to these people. Never been able to put a voice to these people. Never been able to have known these people. 

And it was terrifying. 

Utterly, completely petrifying knowing that there was an entire part of his life that even now, four years after his Awakening, three years after defeating Calamity Ganon, that he _still couldn’t remember._

After leaving the plateau and being bombed by King Rhoam’s spirit telling him of what needed to be done, Link had told himself that none of it had been his fault. He had apparently gotten a second chance at life, and Link knew better than to simply take the word of a strange ghost. For three entire days, he had simply roamed around, ignoring the guilt that chewed his insides. But one way or another, he had ended up at Kakariko Village. Again, he had been pelted with things that he didn’t recall, and every fiber of his being wanted to resist what they were telling him, but another wanted so desperately to find the missing pieces.

Meeting Impa, someone who apparently had known him before the Calamity, had made the situation all too real, and the first time talking to her he hadn’t been able to handle her words, and he had fled her home. It was only the next day that he had time to absorb the information in his fragile state of mind and return before she could explain how he could finally finish off Ganon.

It had helped, a little, finding a purpose. It gave him reason to wake up and move when he didn’t want to. It gave him reason to press on, even when he didn’t want to care about what was going on in Hyrule Castle, because it wasn’t fair that he was the one that had to do something about it. He had failed the first time and died, and Link was only Hylian. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to die.

Such things raced through his mind whenever he was attacked by bokoblins or other creatures, and had felt sickened by the muscle memory of swinging a sword and cutting through flesh. The Champion was scared when he didn’t feel guilt looking upon the dead bodies of the creatures, and the first time he had cut one down with a traveler’s sword, he had vomited. It was different than knocking them out with the tree branches he had before. Now there was blood everywhere. Hot, thick, and darker than normal. And it wasn’t his.

Filled with a new motive to find out who he was, he promised himself that maybe some of his questions could be answered if he found all the locations of the images on his Sheikah Slate. Eight months later, he had almost been angry at the Princess’s voice in his head when she had congratulated him on visiting all of the sites of his memories, even the one on the Blatchery Plain.

Link had just watched himself die, recalled the feeling of numbness replacing excruciating pain. After having run his hands down his own body several times, wondering where his messy scar on the back of his thigh had come from, wondering how he had gotten the gash across his chest, he had remembered how awful it had been. He had remembered how every part of his brain had screamed at him to abandon his princess in that field that day, to abide by her word and run, but he had grit his teeth. For a moment, there was anger at himself. A sense of duty that flooded his body. And that was the only reason he had stood that day again, ready to take the final blow of that Guardian as it closed in on them.

Standing there, in the Blatchery Plain, he was mad at the voice in his head. He didn’t feel like this should be a celebration, and he wanted to scream at her nonexistence and tell her exactly that, but all he could do was cry. It was thunderstorming that day, and he was thankful for it, because he may have worried the travelers at the Dueling Peaks Stable if they could have heard his frustrated wails.

What had broken him the most was that everything else was still missing. All hope that he might remember anything else about his life before had been thrown out the window. Everything important to his mission was there, but that was all. He had begun to feel as if he knew the people from his memories, remembered that they meant something to him. Especially Zelda, whose name was always followed with a rush of warmth like sunlight kissing his skin. (He had thought it ironic that the Deku Tree had described her smile to be like the sun.) Link knew that there was some underlying feeling, but it was buried beneath layers and layers of perpetual guilt and terror.

It wasn’t until he watched Calamity Ganon’s final form be chased out of Hyrule by the one person he least expected to see’s dome of glowing yellow light. His mind had become numb, but sensation returned to him as soon as he laid eyes upon her standing in front of him. Something told him that she hadn’t changed at all, and something also told him that the feeling he kept experiencing each time he saw her face in a memory, or heard her voice, was something deeper than the affection of friendship. It took him a year of trying to rebuild the kingdom as they traveled around to understand just what that was. 

Once Calamity Ganon had been defeated, he hadn’t expected Zelda to be alive. He certainly hadn’t expected her to need so much time getting used to having a body again, either. It had been a long process of recovery for her, and there were a lot of times where she had snapped at him for very little reason when something got under her skin. Link wasn’t sure why he had decided to accompany her, having only the memories from the Sheikah Slate to recall, but it was that same feeling and his sense of duty that disallowed him from leaving her side.

When she had asked him, right after Calamity Ganon was sealed away, if he really remembered her, he wanted to scream at her. To tell her that he didn’t deserve what had happened to him, that she could take her destiny and shove it where the sun didn’t shine, but his voice never worked anyway, and he did the same thing he had after finding every memory. 

And that was to crumple to the ground in a fit of tears. He wanted his hands to tell her every bitter emotion that swelled in his chest, but all that came out was, _I was so lonely._

Admittedly, it probably wasn’t fair that he had such a breakdown like that in front of her, because Zelda immediately fell right after. His feet had moved without him telling them to, and he had managed to catch her before her head hit the ground. They had cried like that for a good several hours, and Link allowed all of his anger to wash away with his tears. He couldn’t bring himself to truly be mad at her, after all. No matter how much he found his suffering to be unjust, he reminded himself that the Princess faced just as much, if not more. 

He didn’t want to follow her after Calamity Ganon was defeated. The person he was now wanted to go home to Hateno and live out his days there. Link had run out of hope that he would ever remember anything else from the days before the Calamity, and he was desperate to make new ones. He had brought Zelda with him out of pity at first, nursing her back to health slowly, but after several weeks passed he couldn’t bring himself to say goodbye. There was something right about being near her, and she was the only clear thing left in his life that was even close to his past. That, and his hopeless attraction towards her that seemed to nag at him. 

The feeling was unwelcome when it first became prominent. Link chastised himself regularly, insisting that he didn’t actually know this person anymore, but that never made any difference. Time flew by, and suddenly Link couldn’t imagine life without her, and he decided that even though he may not know this person very well, she was what made him happy, so of course he followed after her like a puppy.

Galen nudged him suddenly, snapping him out of his thoughts. Link jerked his leg backwards, startling the horse as it flinched away with a snort. The Champion cast an apologetic look at him, and Galen blew out air through his muzzle as he gently reached to pat the horse’s head. 

There was an abrupt desire deep in his chest to try saying something. He knew how to calm his mount, but his soothes were never words. He opened his mouth, and a soft sound came out. Galen looked at him with kind eyes, nosing at his cheek affectionately. 

Link sucked in another breath, opened his mouth, and tried again. He wasn’t sure what he was trying to say, only trying to be able to control the voice that left him when he wanted it. Disappointment surged through him when no sound left this time.

He tried thrice more, this time with the word ‘hello’ on his tongue. No sound left him the first two times, but appeared for only part of the E on his third time. The Champion felt like crying, frustration clenching at his chest. Whenever he tried this, it always went the same way. He knew that he would try about a dozen more times, and that only two of those ten times will sound even come out, and it won’t matter because it won’t last the full word anyway.

Despite this, he opened his mouth again. And again, and again, and again. Link let out a shuddering breath as he held himself together, and his mount nudged him comfortingly in front of him. Grateful for the encouragement, he smiled softly and bumped his forehead against the horse. Again, he tried, and only a squeak left him.

“Link?” A voice very close to him suddenly called. He whipped his head to the side only to find Zelda fully dressed several paces away from him. She must have come around from the bathhouse, because he would have seen her coming if she had come from the front.

He froze, embarrassment prickling through his body. He hadn’t ever wanted to see him like this. He felt naked under her gaze, and not in a good way.

She eyed his discomfort solemnly, taking a few steps back. “Sorry, I.. I should not have intruded like that. Let me know when you are ready.” Her body turned and he listened to her begin to walk away.

Link launched up from his sitting position, causing Galen to trot away in his surprise. He rushed after her, grabbing her wrist. Zelda gasped, lurching around to meet his gaze. 

_I do not-_ he started, his hands feeling useless as he let go of her to sign. _I do not-_ he tried again, growling at himself for making such a fool of himself. 

“It’s okay,” she said easily, and his eyes wrenched to hers. “I understand.”

_No, you don’t,_ Link wanted to tell her. His hands flew up again, and he instead said, _I want you to be able to see when I can actually do it._

Zelda’s heart caught in her throat at his words, and Link pleaded with her with his eyes. She met his gaze seriously, and with a lot of determination. She took his hands, clasping them gently between hers as she stared into his eyes.

“I want to be there for that too,” she said, “but I also do not want to make you uncomfortable. Do you remember what I told you in Zora’s Domain? I will always be here to support you. Even if that means staying away when you practice.”

Guilt clawed at the Champion’s insides, and he pulled his wrists out of her grasp. The gesture wounded her deeply, and she felt sadness rush through her. About to turn and run like she had originally planned, she began again, only to be stopped by his palm around her wrist once again, and to be pulled closely to him. 

“Link, what-” the Princess started, only to trail off at the sight of his mouth opening and taking in a deep breath.

“Ze…” Link blurted out rather suddenly, the noise that flew out of his throat sounding rather inhuman and punched out. It was more like a bark, really, but the rest of her name died on his tongue when his voice ran out. His brows furrowed with frustration, releasing her wrist to burry his palm over his right eye. His teeth were bared, and his lower lip trembled. His left eye, the one Zelda could see, was clenched shut, and she wondered if he was about to cry.

But she couldn’t bring herself to empathize with his struggle because she was too wrapped up in the fact that he had tried to say her name.

“You- that was incredible!” She squealed, the hurt on her face blooming into the brightest smile. Excitement bubbled in her chest, and it was all she could do not to tackle him in a hug. 

Link’s eye snapped open, and his hand on his face fell. He still seemed immeasurably sad, but the Princess couldn’t help her outburst. 

“That was so close! I’ve… I’ve never heard you _try_ like that before! Gods, Link, that was wonderful!” Zelda cheered, launching herself at him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

Link stood there, frozen, surprised at her reaction. He wasn’t sure how she was going to react, but this certainly wasn’t it. Her words invaded his heart, though, and his chest felt tight. There was an awkward pause between when she leapt at him and when he returned her hug, but as soon as functionality returned to his head, he clutched onto her for dear life, burying his face into her shoulder.

“I…” Zelda began quietly after a moment, still fisting her hands into his shirt. “I do not want to ever… pressure you to do something. I want you to want me to help you, not for you to feel guilty for practicing when I can hear. But if you…” she trailed off again, biting her lip as she summoned the courage left in her. “If you want, I will not disturb that.”

Link pulled her tighter against him, and she melted into his embrace. They stayed there for a long time, breathing each other in and appreciating the cool breeze that swept by them. When he pulled back, she tried to ask him if he was okay, but he stopped her and held up his hands.

_It is not that I do not want you to help,_ he began to explain, and Zelda searched his eyes. There was no dishonesty or half-truth in them. _I just do not want you to see me so weak._ His eyes cast down, and her stomach flipped.

“You- I could never see you as weak!” She cried suddenly, hitting him on his shoulder. He doubled backwards, shocked by her reaction. “You, who holds the Sword that Seals the Darkness; you, who _protected_ me from _everything_ even when I was so cruel to you; you, who came to Hyrule Castle and helped me seal away the most ancient evil to ever mar these lands! You are _so_ far from weak, Link. So, _so_ so, far and I wish I could just make you see that!”

She advanced on him, and he scrambled backwards a little, nervousness apparent on his features.

“You do not need your voice, nor have you ever! You were going to be Captain of the Guarde Before, and you were chosen by my father to be a Champion - to _protect_ Hyrule and to protect me! Silence has been your weapon from the start, so do not make me lecture you about how strong that makes you!”

She stopped right in front of him, and he stared up at her with his mouth slightly ajar. His brows were still furrowed, but he tipped his head back slightly and took in a shuddering breath that was huffed out straight after.

_Sorry,_ he signed after a second, and Zelda batted his hands away. 

“And no more being sorry for existing,” she concluded strongly, holding out her hand for him to take. 

Link’s eyes passed between her own and her hand, connecting the double meaning before taking it and swinging himself back up to his feet.

“Now,” Zelda said, “show me how to better control my horse.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I wrote this, I thought about omitting the last part. When I entered this fandom after botw came out and I played it myself, I looked at all the media posted and felt incredibly dissatisfied by the amount of people willing to pass Link off as something less than a person. I agree that it is infinitely funny seeing him portrayed as the wild gremlin child that he is, but I believe that the fanon Link was based so solely on how people played him that the heaviness of the rest of the story was... a little lost. To be fair, there is plenty of angst out there about this, but it's just so completely buried. The fact that we never get anymore cutscenes than the ones we can find in the DLCs and the main game, Link doesn't recover any of his other memories, and I just wish that more light was brought to that fact. Waking up the way he did, all alone, thrown into a strange world and then tossed into the oblivion of such an immense responsibility would hinder the psyche of many, and it's greatly saddening that I don't see more of that. 
> 
> I'll stop ranting now, this is just an opinion of my own. It's not right or wrong in any way, I just felt like I had something to say about it.


	9. A Day Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please always ride a horse with a helmet, and never ride recklessly. It gets people or yourself hurt. Also remember to take proper care of such animals, and never leave wet sweat on them.
> 
> Next chapter will be released on Oct 8, 2020.

Zelda held her saddle while Link finished up adjusting Galen’s bridle. It was heavy, and she was antsy while he finally tucked the last adjustment into its keeper on the horse’s cheek piece.

He tossed a spare saddle rug onto Storm’s back, batting his nose away when the horse pinned his ears and looked back at the knight. The stallion snorted, but allowed him to continue reluctantly. Link took the saddle out of her hands, and walked over to the horse’s side before gently lowering it on his back.

“So, rug then saddle?” She asked, watching him work.

The knight nodded. _Then girth, breastplate, and bridle._ He attached the breastplate to the D-rings and ran the yoke through the stallion’s legs and hooked it into the girth. _Always make sure the breastplate is not tight against their chest,_ he added, tugging at the leather by Storm’s breast.

She nodded, scribbling a note down in a smaller travel notebook that she had brought with her. 

Link walked over to her, holding out the bridle, and she took it in hand. Storm (thankfully) lowered his head for her, opening his mouth obediently to take the bit as it slipped between his lips. He chomped on it while she threaded his ears through the browband and crown piece, shaking out his head when she pulled his forelock through the leather bands.

Link adjusted the browband slightly, and then threw her a thumbs up to which the Princess felt great pride. 

_Also remember to always brush them down before and after putting tack on. Dirt that gets between them can cause issues, and Storm already has a little rain rot._

Zelda perked up at that, frowning. “Rain rot?”

The Champion waved her over towards his back legs, just below the horse’s hocks. He took her hand and ran her fingers down his canon bones. He pulled back a bit and gave himself room to sign. _Do you feel that?_

She ran her fingers down it again, and felt a slight bumpiness to the skin. “That is rain rot?”

Link nodded. _It happens when you leave them wet. If they do not dry properly the moisture gets stuck under their hair. It does not hurt them, but it rubs hair off when you pick at it, and will spread if you leave it alone. I tried to get some of it off of him earlier, but I do not want to scrub at the skin too much._

“You are really knowledgeable in this,” she hummed, casting him a smile.

The Champion grinned back, clearly prideful in his expertise. _I am a stableboy through and through, Zelda._

She shook her head, standing up slowly and taking Storm’s reins over his head. “So do you have somewhere in mind we can ride?”

 _There are lots of fields around we can mess around in,_ he said as he hopped over the stall barrier where Galen was standing patiently. _I think somewhere flat and open would work, and there are some southwest of here like that._

“Let us go, then,” she said excitedly, pulling at her stirrup as she climbed onto the stall barrier in order to reach a little easier. She stepped into it, and swung over into the saddle. She cringed, already regretting that choice, but was thankful that Storm hadn’t taken that opportunity to rush off. 

They blazed a trail through the fields to the south of his house, and Zelda looked down at the Ginner and Midla woods to their right. She could see deer and other wildlife through the treeline, picking their heads up silently to watch as they passed a ways off.

At the trot, they reached their destination about ten minutes later. The sound of the village could no longer be heard, and the breeze rustled the grass as he motioned for her to halt her horse.

_Do you know your emergency brakes? He asked her, turning Galen to face her._

“My… emergency brakes?” She questioned, giving him a curious look. 

He nodded shortly. _If you ever feel like your horse is putting you in danger when you are in the saddle, you either need to learn how to fall, or how to dismount without being thrown while you are still moving._

“I am not sure what you mean,” Zelda said, tapping a finger to her chin.

 _Watch for a moment,_ he said, then turned Galen eastwards towards an open area. “Yah!” he whispered, spurring the horse forward into a sudden gallop. Being as heavy as his mount was, it took a second for him to reach high enough speed, and the Princess worried for a moment that she may not be able to see them if they went off too far. Beneath her, Storm watched alertly with his ears pricked forward, and Zelda hoped to Hylia that the stallion wouldn’t get any ideas in chasing after the wild pair.

Her eyes glued to her knight, she watched as Link abruptly leapt vertically into the air, and her jaw dropped. He must have jumped five extra feet straight up, and Galen charged forward ahead of him as he landed gracefully in the grass. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled, and the bay slid to a stop before pivoting and running back towards his master. Link stepped into a jog towards the Princess, looking behind him as he did. Galen strode up to his side, and he vaulted himself into the saddle, pulling the horse to slow down as he approached her.

 _So not exactly like that,_ he said, breathing a little harder than normal, _but you get the idea._

“You are truly a freak of nature,” she deadpanned, and the knight smiled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

 _Anyway,_ he continued, his reins resting against the horn of his saddle, _it is a good idea to know how to dismount of your own will even when your horse is spooking at something. It takes a lot of practice to figure out exactly where all of your limbs should be going and how not to panic when it rushes off with you, but it will probably hurt a lot less if you control your dismount than if you were to end up thrown into the dirt._

“Speaking from experience?” She teased, liking the way his face flushed with embarrassment. 

_After my Awakening and getting off of the plateau, I tamed Galen right off the bat, but when he threw me after heading too quickly towards a wall, he punted me backwards when I slipped off his rear,_ he admitted through a crooked smile.

The Princess laughed. “That perfectly well-behaved stallion of yours threw you? And then kicked you? I do not believe it!”

The deep rumble of Link’s chest as he began breaking out into snickers of his own was a sound the Princess wanted to live in, but she shook her head and cleared her mind. 

_I believe, Princess, that you and Storm’s problem lies within Storm’s typical nature, and also in that he believes that you are only his passenger._

She cocked her head. “I do not believe I fully understand.”

Link’s hands waved wildly for a moment in motions that weren’t signs before he gathered the words together. _Think of a battalion. There is a captain, and his men. The captain should be making the decisions, and his men should follow those commands. Your problem is that Storm believes he is the captain, when it should be the other way around._

“Just like you to make this an analogy to the military,” Zelda whispered under her breath.

 _What?_ He signed.

“Nothing, sorry. I think I get it now, though. So in other words, I am not driving this wagon.”

_Correct. The best way to improve this, I think, is to show him that he is not the one who should be making the calls. But just in case something goes wrong, I want you to know how to dismount quickly and of your own volition._

She nodded quickly. “I do not believe I will be able to do any vertical leaps out of the saddle, but I will give it my best.”

The Champion laughed, shaking his head. _We will start with something a lot safer and easier for now. And, actually, it would put my mind more at ease to have you on Galen for this. I promise that he will not pull anything unexpected like Storm might._

“But I will have to deal with Storm at some point,” Zelda reasoned. “If I get used to his ornery antics now, would that not be better?”

 _The point of these exercises is to dissuade him from continuing in his ornery antics, so no. Besides, I swore an oath to protect you, and if that means I have to listen to you complain about riding my much safer, much more cooperative horse, then I can live with that._ He finished by sticking his tongue out at her childishly.

Her heart fluttered at the gesture. It was refreshing to see him allow himself to speak and act freely like this. It happened rarely, but even the shortest of moments where he was able to come out of his shell and act his age (well, maybe not exactly his age since he was technically 119 now) for at least a little while.

“Alright,” she agreed reluctantly, pouting at the white horse below her. “Guess you will have to put up with the wild one, then.”

 _I hope you did not mean me by that,_ he signed, his face deadpan.

“Oh, of course not,” the Princess replied, swinging herself out of the saddle. “I would never.”

Link pursed his lips at her, narrowing his eyes as they traded reins. Galen was bigger than Storm, so she had to do a bit of vaulting in order to pull herself up into the saddle. It was by no means a graceful thing, and she felt a little irritated by how easy Link made it look when they had left his house.

When he got settled in her saddle, he made sure she was looking before continuing his lesson.

 _So first, I just want you to try jumping out of the saddle from a halt. Just like this._ Link grabbed the horn in his dominant hand, kicked his feet out of the stirrups, and somehow managed to push himself out of the saddle to the left, and land at Storm’s side. The horse’s ears pinned backwards, disrupted by the sudden swinging motion, and glared back at him with disdain. Suddenly Zelda was happy she had agreed to their switching arrangement.

 _Go ahead,_ he signed from the ground before jumping back up onto the white stallion’s back.

She tried her best to recreate the graceful movement he had displayed, but she simply didn’t understand how he had pushed his rear out of the saddle. When she used her lower back muscles in a desperate attempt to swing out, she managed to get her weight up, and she slipped off of Galen’s side only to stumble forward as she caught herself on unsteady feet. The horse looked at her curiously, but otherwise did nothing, seemingly unaffected by her awkward movements on him.

“How in Hylia did you manage to put air between yourself and that saddle with just your arm?” She asked, shaking the jitters from landing so hard on her feet out.

 _Use your leg to push upwards. Grip with your thighs and calves._ The Champion kicked his feet out of his stirrups, then impressively demonstrated himself as he clamped his leg down on the horse’s side and pushed his hips forward and up. It is like holding the upwards motion of a post at the trot, just without stirrups. _You never want to try to dismount with stirrups, because if your horse spooks and runs off, your foot could get stuck, and you could end up dragged._

“I am not sure I have that leg strength,” she sighed, turning back towards Galen and finagling her way back into his saddle.

 _Try again,_ her knight commanded.

They practiced this for a long while. Her legs were sore already, and she was breathing hard. She knew how to ride a horse properly, and knew how to steer, slow up, and accelerate, but this was a whole different feeling. In fact, it was a whole muscle group that she hadn’t realized she even possessed. 

Of course, when she asked him to show it to her again, he made it look easy each time, and he offered constructive advice whenever she struggled. By her umpteenth time, she managed to do one rather gracefully, but her muscles protested when she tried to do it again.

Link allowed her a break and explained that he was going to jog Storm around a little while she rested. After having the Champion swing off and back onto his back so many times, the white stallion was getting restless and irritated. The horse protested Link’s demand to walk forward, backing up instead in retaliation, but the hero was having none of it, dug his heels into the stallion’s sides, and held the reins tightly and evenly, and eventually the horse began walking forwards.

“How did you do that?” She had asked between deep breaths, watching her mount take long strides to her right.

 _Always use leg to hand when issuing commands. Contact on their side is how they are trained to move. When being ridden, they are trained to move away from contact, so when I put my right leg on and nothing else,_ he did just that, and the horse began moving to the left, _he moves in the opposite direction. The same is true for the other side._

“But how did you make him move forwards?”

_Since they move away from contact, contact on both sides encourages him forwards. However, they are also trained to know that contact is released when they are rewarded for doing what they are asked. I use the reins to create a chute to prevent him from turning one way or another, and since he knows that contact is still being put on when he is moving backwards, he knows there is only one way left to go, and that is forwards._

“Incredible,” she mumbled, whipping out her notebook and scribbling a few notes in. Galen, beside her, nosed at her charcoal pencil, flinching away when she shooed his face in the other direction.

Link chuckled softly as he watched her do her thing, scholarly recording her findings as she always did.

After her break, they picked up where they left off, and the Princess had successes much more often than she had before. After her fourth time in a row executing it to a satisfactory standard, her knight allowed her to try it at the walk, then at the trot, but insisted that they call it a day at that point. Part of her wanted to insist that she could keep going, that she was on a hot streak that she didn’t want to waste, but the sun was high in the sky, and even though the cool temperatures of autumn were closing in, the heat still beat down on her. 

He tossed her a waterskin as they switched back to their own horses and made their way back to the house. There, she helped untack and water the horses, brushing them down with a round tool that Link called a currycomb.

An hour later and the horses were put away, and Link allowed Galen to roam around the property with the dismissive argument that he knew where home was, and that he never went far anyway. Somehow Zelda didn’t doubt that, even if it did make her a little nervous watching the horse freely romp around. Her nerves caught in her throat when he trotted out of their sight, and she tried to insist that they should go after him, but he reassured her with a hand on her shoulder that he would be back, and they went inside. 

Link had not had a bath since even the day before, and he scurried off into the bathhouse in order to do that. Apparently the Princess had taken the liberty to bathe before she had left to go outside earlier, but she somewhat regretted that decision as she was all sweaty again. 

Something in her tempted her to join her knight in his bath, but she figured that that wasn’t guaranteed to end up the way she thought it might, so she allowed him his privacy as he cleaned himself in peace. When he came out, he had a towel around his hips and messy, half-dry hair that he had left out of his usual ponytail. She tried not to stare too openly at his broad, muscled, and scarred chest, but her gaze was chased away by his own.

She quickly ducked into the bathhouse next, ensuring that she had remembered her clean set of clothes to take in with her as she quickly shut the door behind her. He had given her a strange look as she had blown past him.

She bathed for just over half an hour before reemerging, towling her hair dry as she looked up to find Link heading out the door. He explained that he had set up laundry lines outside, and promised he would be back in in just a moment. Zelda took this opportunity to settle into the only comfortable chair he owned and crack open one of the books he had stashed away on a shelf. She was surprised to find that it was a romance novel - and she chuckled at the thought of her knight reading such fictitious nonsense. Asking him about it when he came back in, his face went red as he scrambled to find an excuse.

 _No one dies, there is always a happy ending, and well, I think- I think it can be good? Sometimes?_

The Princess laughed, feeling affection bubble up inside of her at his reaction. He pouted comically, and she waved her hand. “Sorry, I was not trying to mock you. It just surprised me is all.”

Link huffed indignantly as he passed her in her chair, swiping a hand through her damp locks as he did. It took everything within her not to lean too far into the gentle and fleeting caress. When he tapped her on the shoulder, she turned around, and he lifted his hands.

 _Do you want something to eat?_

“Are you asking me if I am hungry, or what I want to eat so you can make food for both of us?” She asked with a smirk, and knew that she had guessed his ulterior motives correctly when his ears twitched with embarrassment. “How about some hot buttered apples?” She offered helpfully, now turned and draped over the back of the chair.

 _That sounds good. I can go get some butter from the general store quickly._ He turned to leave, but looked back at her when he heard the chair scrape backwards against the floor.

“I could come with you?” She asked, setting the book down on the table. “You know, to carry things, if you need help.”

Link let out a _pff_ before melting into a chuckle, waving at her to get a move on as he readjusted his ponytail. The knight swiped a pen and a small notepad from the bookshelf as the Princess leapt up to scamper after him. He tucked the notepad into his belt, and the pen into his pocket, and he swung around to hold the door open for her. As they headed northwards towards the bridge that connected Link’s house to the rest of Hateno, Zelda caught sight of Galen out of the corner of her eye to her left, and Link only nodded knowingly when she cracked a smile.

As they crossed the bridge, the Princess allowed the sound of the trickling stream below them and the gentle breeze to wash over her. Her hair was still damp, so as it hit her head there was a refreshing chill that followed. Her clothes were also a little easier to breathe in - she had forgone her typical outfit in favor of her commonwealth hylian clothing that she saved for times when she was avoiding attention. It seemed as good an idea now to use them as it had ever been, so she had slipped them on. It greatly resembled Link’s hylian outfit, just that it was fitted for a more feminine frame. Her typical cloak around her shoulders completed the look, and she was quite pleased with how comfortable it was. 

Falling into easy conversation, they made their way towards the general store. Link waved at a few of the villagers that recognized him, and Zelda pointedly ignored the way a group of girls shuffled by giggling and blushing when he smiled their way. 

Suddenly, a tiny frame rushed out of the bushes, surprising them both when it raced past her and straight onto one of Link’s legs. The Champion let out a grunt of shock at the sudden impact, and Zelda watched panic surge through his body before his eyes landed on the parasite currently attached to him.

It was not, in fact, any kind of parasite, but instead a small boy. He looked as if he must have been eight or nine, and he grinned fiercely up at the knight toothily. There was dirt smudged on his face in a youthful way, and he wore a necklace with little blue accents around it.

“I just knew you’d come back, Mister!” He said. “You got a lot taller, too! You bring me anything cool to see? Please, oh please?”

Zelda shot her guard a strange look, and he lifted his hands to spell out N-e-b-b. It must have been his name, and Link turned his attention to the notepad that he quickly dug out of his pocket. 

_You got bigger as well,_ he wrote in his blocky handwriting, showing it to the child whose smile only widened.

“I know, right! I can even help with the herders on the hill, now, I’m so big. But c’mon! You got anything cool? You only showed me eight things, and I wanna see something new now!” The child wined.

Link sighed, casting an apologetic look to the Princess before tugging at his satchel. It was always funny to her, watching him pull comically large amounts of things out of his bag that logically shouldn’t fit in it. The koroks had magically expanded it so much now that he massively hoarded weapons and shields in there of all kinds, not to mention all of his cooking ingredients. 

As he pulled out a Great Flameblade, he ushered the child back a few steps out of danger of the edge of the weapon and held it out to him hilt first with the blade pointing towards the ground. Nebb’s jaw positively dropped, and he stood there with his mouth agape for several moments before he was able to find words.

“S-so cool!” He cried, his face melting into another one of his wide, toothy grins. “What does it do?”

Link scribbled something on his notepad, then pointed the paper in his direction when he was finished. _It burns when striking enemies._

“Awesome! Can I see?!”

Link chuckled, sticking the Great Flameblade back into his satchel before shaking his head and patting the child’s hair.

“Aw…” Nebb pouted, trailing off when he suddenly noticed that the two weren’t alone. He gazed up at Zelda with a quizzical look, then at Link, and back at Zelda.

The Princess tensed under his gaze, worried that he may have recognized her, but was promptly shut back down at his words.

“That your wife or something?” The child asked innocently, tilting his head and sticking a finger in Zelda’s direction.

Both adults’ faces went red, and Link was the first to wave his arms in an X motion wildly. He grabbed for his pen quickly, doing his best to scribble something down on his notepad, but his hands shook too much for him to write anything coherent.

“K-kind of!” Zelda said in a pitch three times higher than normal. Link’s head whipped in her direction, his blush spread all the way down his neck. “I-I mean I, um, I am not his _wife,_ but we are- you know, really really good friends!”

Nebb eyed them suspiciously, his lips pursing. “I thought married people live together. And you guys are staying at Link’s house, right? So doesn’t that make you married?”

Link looked like he was about to pass out, so Zelda scrambled to put words together. “N-not necessarily! I am staying with him, but w-we are not married.” She laughed robotically and nervously, drawing attention from a few of the other villagers as they passed.

“Nebb!” Cried a woman from behind them. They all turned to see a woman jogging up the path, her eyes on the small boy. “Gods, I have been looking everywhere for you! You said you were going to play in the river with Narah, but when only she came back I was worried!”

“I saw Mister Link come back, and I wanted to see if he had any cool weapons!” The child whined. 

“Oh! Mister Link, I didn’t even notice. Forgive my rambunctious child - he is getting more and more feral every day. Thank you for entertaining him so,” the woman said, grabbing her child by the back of the head and forcing his head down slightly into a bow as she dipped into one of her own. When she looked back up, she noticed Zelda, and she narrowed her eyes in recognition. “Have we… met before?”

Zelda waved her hands, hoping that her blush was now gone. “Perhaps! At a stable, or, or something…” 

Link had written something down on his notepad while she had spoken, and he turned it to her. _It is no problem. Good to see you again, Miss Nikki._

“I am flattered you remember my name,” the woman gushed for a moment before clearing her throat awkwardly. “Again, thank you for entertaining Nebb. He will be coming back for lunch now, as I have been calling out to him for the past ten minutes.” She growled the last part, and Nebb’s face went white as she began to turn and drag the child away.

Zelda giggled as she watched them head down the path towards their home, but when she and the Champion turned to each other instinctively and their eyes met, they both flushed and looked away.

“W-we should get that goat butter,” she stammered indignantly.

He nodded quickly, tugging at his earring nervously as he fell into step next to her. The general store was only straight ahead, so it would take them only a few minutes of awkward silence to get there. As they began walking again, though, Link scratched the back of his neck before whipping his hand down to his side. Their knuckles brushed, and the Princess felt him hesitantly, gently take hold of her hand. 

This bashfulness was silly, really. They had already consummated their relationship many times, but it was wholly different when there were eyes all around them. They had never been able to be public about anything, and even now they had to be careful, but the warmth of his hand made all the inherent risks worth it. She was sure that anyone who saw them being affectionate now would be able to puzzle together that she was the Princess at least when it came time to be crowned at her coronation, but this week was supposed to be about experiencing the typical Hylian life, so she wouldn’t waste it. Besides, friends held hands, right? She didn’t exactly want them to be seen as only friends, but in the long run she knew it would be better for the kingdom, as selfish as that sounded. 

But right now, she only wanted to keep holding his hand, and act like everything was normal. Because again, that was what this week was about. Normalcy.

As they walked towards the East Wind, Ivee perked up from her normal post, sweeping the front as she always did. She smiled broadly, waving enthusiastically and calling out to them as they approached.

“So good to see you again, Mister Link!” She exclaimed, stopping her chore and holding the broom in her hands. Her eyes flicked to Zelda to his right, down to their hands, then back to Link. “And I see you brought a lady-friend! About time, too.”

Zelda was caught off guard by her familiarity with her knight, clearly misunderstanding how often he must visit here. She blushed, looking away.

“Anyway, do you guys plan on shopping here at the East Wind? We have some great produce that you would be able to use! In fact, most of our shipments came in this morning, so everything is very fresh!” Ivee continued with a spectacular grin.

Link let go of Zelda’s hand in that moment, and the Princess felt a great loss at the lack of contact. Suddenly she felt awkward, not knowing quite what to do with her hands. The Champion reached for his notepad and pen again.

 _Would you happen to have goat butter?_ He wrote, holding it out for Ivee to examine.

Ivee tapped her finger against her chin, furrowing her brow, closing her eyes, and humming thoughtfully. “Only way to find out is to go in! Feel free to get lost in the rest of the wares, as well!”

Link gave her a look that said “really?” but she only giggled.

“The shop is small, so if you have questions about items that aren’t on display, make sure to check in with my dad! He’ll be glad to see you again, I’m sure.”

Link sighed heavily, turning towards the door of the East Wind, but Ivee quickly stopped her. 

“So, is it true?” She whispered loudly.

“I-is what true?” Zelda did her best to quell her ceaseless stutter.

“That you and Mister Link are a couple! I saw you guys holding hands, after all!”

The Princess knew she had to answer this carefully. She wanted with all of her heart to squeal “yes, we are!” but she also knew that everyone was aware of Link’s status as a royal guard. Specifically the royal guard to the Princess. Everyone would know that she had cut her hair at the coronation, and anyone that Zelda answered this question with a yes to would know that they were more than their outward appearance behind closed doors. So, through gritted teeth, Zelda replied, “You are mistaken. We have been friends for a very long time, so this is natural for us.”

What she had said was not a lie, but it was also only half of the truth. Ivee hummed again. “How disappointing. He’s lived alone in that house for a really long time now, so I was hoping that maybe he’d found someone super special. Not that you aren’t, of course, but, you know, someone with whom he can share a romance!”

 _Oh, you don’t know the half of it,_ Zelda wanted to say. Instead, she only nodded awkwardly. 

“Oh, forgive me, I haven’t even introduced myself. My name is Ivee! My father, Pruce, owns this shop. I do hope you can forgive my ramblings. It’s been awhile since a girl my age that doesn’t live in the village has passed by, and when I saw you with Link, well, I already told you that!” Ivee said with a smile.

“Good to meet you, Ivee,” the Princess replied, holding out a hand for her to shake.

The girl took it enthusiastically, her short brown hair following after each of her movements. “May I ask your name?”

Zelda froze. “Oh! Um, Hana,” she managed after a moment.

“What a beautiful name!” Ivee cried, her eyes shining. “What brings you through here?”

“Link has taken a leave of about a week from the castle, and he promised that he would take me here one day to show me his house, so… here we are.”

“Ugh! Even though you insist that you two aren’t a couple, it would be so easy to peg you as one. Besides, between you and me, I think he’s quite handsome, don’t you?” The girl giggled.

Zelda resisted the urge to nod like an idiot, and instead responded smoothly with, “If you say so.”

“Oh- I’m sorry, I’ve been talking too long again. You both were here to shop, and I totally kept you by blabbing at you out here. That wasn’t very business-like of me at all. Anyway, please take a look around our shop. Like I said before, if you need any help, you can ask my father behind the desk. I hope we can talk more sometime!” Ivee concluded, again, with a close-lipped smile.

The Princess returned her grin politely. “Me too, Ivee. Thank you for your business.”

“And thank you to your hopeful patronage!” The young woman exclaimed, giving a playful salute.

With that, Zelda finally let herself inside the store, looking around at all the fresh ingredients and her gaze fell upon her knight off to the side. He was looking, unsurprisingly, at the bomb arrows, and Pruce carried a concerned expression from across the counter.

“Oh, hello, Miss!” The man greeted her, being sure to keep a close eye on the Hylian handling the bomb arrows.

“Hello,” she replied, offering a smile. She looked back at Link who had stopped examining the arsenal to instead meet her gaze.

 _What kept you?_ He signed after placing the arrows back into their spots. 

“I met Ivee,” she explained, before adding quietly, “she is a bit of a talker.”

Link chuckled breathily, nodding. 

“So did you find the goat butter?” Zelda asked, sweeping her eyes around the limited items the store had to offer. 

_No, apparently they do not have any,_ he explained. _They have mushrooms, though, and I have some vegetables and salt at the house, so I could make some cream of mushroom soup with the milk they have._

The thought alone of tasting Link’s soup had her mouth watering, and she groaned. “That sounds _incredible,_ actually.”

The Champion’s face lit up, swiping up two bundles of ten bomb arrows and setting them on the counter before heading over to grabbing two bottles of fresh milk.

“What in Hylia do you need those for?” Zelda deadpanned, gesturing at the arrows. 

“To cause property damage, no doubt,” Pruce mumbled beneath his breath.

 _For emergency,_ Link corrected.

The Princess rolled her eyes affectionately as he paid for the items, and Pruce packaged them all up carefully for him. 

“I pray you use these far, _far_ away from Hateno, Mister Link,” the shopkeeper warned as he handed the arrows over to Zelda. “I entrust these to you, dear, in hopes that they are in safer hands.”

Link frowned, raising a brow to Pruce then to Zelda. 

“I guarantee they will be used quite far away, Mister Pruce,” the Princess reassured him, sticking her tongue out at her knight who looked thoroughly unamused.

As they walked out of the shop, they waved goodbye to Ivee, and Link held out his hand expectantly to his charge.

“Oh, I think not,” she said smugly. “I promised that good man that these would be kept away from irresponsible hands, and I would be breaking that promise if I handed them to you.”

 _We both literally saved Hyrule. I saved lives with those arrows!_ Link defended quickly.

“And, according to him, also racked up an impressive sum in property damage as well! Besides, where are you going to put them? I saw your quiver - it’s full.”

Link opened his satchel.

“Oh _gods_ no. Please do not tell me you regularly store things as dangerous as bomb arrows in your _satchel._ ”

 _You did not seem to have a problem with dangerous weapons being kept in there when I pulled out the Great Flameblade earlier,_ he signed. _Besides, I keep all the arrows I am not currently using in here. I even keep fire and shock arrows in it._

“I am surprised you do not have bomb arrows already in it as well.”

_I left them at the castle because I did not think I would need them._

“Then why buy any now?”

_Like I said, for emergencies. We are headed towards Gerudo after this anyway, right? It is a long trek, and I want to be prepared for it._

“Twenty seems like an overly healthy number to be buying ‘for emergencies.’”

Link groaned, holding out his hand again. Zelda giggled, then placed the bundles into his waiting palm. 

“Do well to heed his warning, Mister Link,” she teased. “Those things really are not toys.”

 _I know how it feels to get blasted backwards by one, so yeah, I know,_ Link signed as he stuffed them a little too carelessly to be considered safe into his satchel. _And anyway, I can make bombs with the Sheikah Slate. So even if you had held onto them, I would still have at least two explosives in my arsenal._

“You used those for way too many things after your Awakening, huh?” Zelda laughed. 

Her giggles melted away, however, when his smile disappeared. His jaw clenched, and something indescribable rushed through his eyes. The moment it passed her lips, she regretted saying anything.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I should not have said that.”

Link’s gaze suddenly snapped to hers. _It is fine,_ he signed hesitantly.

There was a heavy pause before he looked away from her down the path. 

_Anyway, we could go look for truffles or mushrooms down in the woods?_ He began. 

Zelda knew he was avoiding the subject openly, his conversational dodge clear as Lurelin waters. “Yeah,” she said agreeably, willing to drop the subject for now. “Let’s go.”

As they headed off down the path again, Zelda regarded her knight from a pace behind him. His face was measured and appeared to seem normal, but there was a stiffness to his gait that wasn’t normally there.

Link hadn’t talked much about what had happened after his Awakening. There were times when she thought about asking him, but like just now, he normally shut down when she brought it up. It wasn’t like she was completely ignorant to his ventures. As her time as Hylia, a version of herself without physical form, and somewhat of a consciousness, she was able to ‘watch’ him from afar. It wasn’t seeing as much as it was feeling. She had been completely aware of his presence the entire time, and would even occasionally find the pause in her fight with Calamity Ganon to be able to congratulate him on certain milestones, but she had also been completely aware of his struggle.

She had felt his deeply-rooted sadness and anger, but more often than not it was terror. It was easy for her to tell when he was fighting, because in their ethereal connection, she would taste a terrible bitterness of his adrenaline. 

Zelda recalled feeling a little bit more relieved every time he found a memory, but his recognition was almost always followed by an intense wave of sorrow that seeped through her bodiless form. 

But even then, it was difficult for her to fully understand his internal grappling until they had finally defeated Calamity Ganon. It had been strange and overwhelming to stand again, feeling the grass tickle her feet through her awful sandals, the weight of her own body hammering against atrophied muscles, and surrounded by the earthy smell of Hyrule Field.

It had taken all of her strength to ask him if he remembered her, but his answer was everything she hadn’t expected. Her brave knight from one hundred years ago had disappeared, and the person in front of her that wore his face and carried his bravery was someone completely different. He had wept, signing nothing but the motion for ‘lonely’ before she had collapsed and was caught by the same boy.

It had deeply been bothering her even now, that he refused to talk about those times. She was aware that it was most definitely not eleven months he wanted to recall, but even three years later he seemed to want to bury them all. It wasn’t healthy. The only way to heal was to recognize them, accept them, and move on, but Link seemed to be trapped between wanting to cling to the person he was today when in reality without most of his memory from Before, that was all of who he was.

Sometimes it was hard to see. Like now, for instance, as he was running up to her covered in dirt from digging around the trees’ roots and finding hearty truffles, he wore the biggest, most childish grin a 119-year-old could wear. It was easy to forget that he had been through several hells and back. She supposed that this respite was good for him, that he could remember how to live again, but she also knew that he would never give up his duty to her, and that this was only one week that she would be able to see this side of him.

They spent a few hours searching through the woods, picking up several types of mushrooms, herbs, a few radishes, and a sizable amount of hearty truffles. They were all thrown into Link’s satchel as they ascended the path once again, celebrating their finds 

_We could stop by Kakariko Village for a day or so if you wanted to this week,_ Link said as they headed towards the house. _That way we can get some goat butter, and I can make you your hot buttered apples._

“Oh, it would be good to see Impa outside of court again,” the Princess hummed. “I also have not seen Paya in so long, and their local hot springs there are absolutely to _die_ for.”

Link looked at the ground for a moment, staring at his feet as they came upon the bridge. _Yeah,_ he agreed finally. _I have to talk to Paya anyway._

Zelda recalled her conversation with Impa in Zora’s Domain, and figured she knew exactly why. She was curious to see whether or not her knight would tell her, though, if she asked. So, she did. “What have you to talk to Paya about?”

The Champion faltered, guilt flashing through his features. His hands lifted, fell, then lifted again. _I think I may have scared her the last time I saw her. I want to apologise properly for it._

“What happened?” The Princess pressed gently, curious to see how far he would explain before locking up.

Link avoided her gaze, fixing his sights on the house in front of them. _I visited Kakariko a few months after we defeated Ganon, he admitted finally. I do not know if you remember, but I left the castle for a week around then. People were working on getting Castle Town liveable again at that time._

Zelda nodded, jogging a few steps as they approached the door in order to open it for him. He nodded at her in thanks.

 _Impa let me stay in a spare room, and…_ Her knight hesitated, then shook his head. _Anyway, I think I scared her, so I need to apologise._

She hadn’t expected him to finish, but it saddened her that he wouldn’t open up to her. She supposed that it was alright as long as it didn’t turn into anything self-destructive, but she wished he had a little more trust in her. It wasn’t often that he spoke freely about his thoughts, and required a lot of prompting to get him to feel safe enough to do so. However, pushing him into telling her something he didn’t want to talk about wasn’t what she was after, so she let it go. Like she always did.

“We could head over tomorrow?” Zelda offered instead. “It is not that far of a ride, so we could probably make it there in time for lunch.”

Link visibly relaxed as the subject was dropped, and he nodded eagerly. _I want to visit Koko and Cottla as well. It has been awhile since I have seen them._

The Princess hummed. “Those are Cado’s children, right?”

The Champion bobbed his head again, smiling at the thought of the rambunctious, energetic girls. _He has his hands full. I used to use the Sheikah Slate to travel there on my days off and wear them both out with a good game of tag so that Cado might be able to put them to sleep at a reasonable hour._

Zelda couldn’t help but giggle at the thought. “You are really good with kids, you know.” 

It came out of her mouth unexpectedly, and her face colored as blush bloomed across her cheeks. Mercifully, Link didn’t seem to notice, only jumping up giddily at her comment. _You think so?_

Thankful for his thick skull for once in her life, she nodded honestly. “Like with Tulin, with Nebb, and with Cado’s kids as well.” She bit her tongue, wanting to tell him that he would make a good father one day, but she wasn’t sure if that was crossing a line. There were too many double meanings to that.

Link only hummed happily, a skip in his step as they entered the kitchen. After a thoughtful pause, he signed, _It just seems to come naturally, I guess._

They fell into a rhythm as they prepared everything that would be needed for dinner, Zelda having to insist that she help because Link kept trying to shoo her out of the area.

 _I can take care of it,_ The Champion signed repeatedly, lining up all of his ingredients on the makeshift counter.

“I know you can, but I feel useless just sitting on your chair reading a book while you work. Besides, my cooking skills could use a refresher anyway, seeing as you ‘take care of it’ all the time,” she argued, picking up the mushrooms to clean in the basin.

Link sighed resignedly, taking a small knife to begin peeling a carrot that he had brought with him in their provisions bag.

She eyed it curiously, frowning slightly. “Why do you bother bringing extra bags of food when you have that bottomless pit of a satchel that you always wear?”

He shrugged, setting the things in his hands down before replying. _Having multiple things to carry seemed more normal to me, and since that is what this week is supposed to be about, I figured it would be just that. Normal._

The Princess hummed, gently swiping dirt from the mushrooms as she rinsed them in the water and set them off to the side. Link bent down to grab a deep pot from one of the lower cabinets and set it down on the floor next to him. He tapped her leg, grabbing her attention.

_I am going to go get some water from the pond since I do not want to use any from the well._

Zelda nodded, flicking the water from her hands. “Do you want me to finish cutting the vegetables after I finish with this?”

He clapped his hands together in a pleading way, smiling broadly, and the Princess felt a deep stab of fondness spear her in the chest. 

_I will be right back,_ he said, pulling the door open and rushing out with the water.

With a soft laugh, she waved him off, wondering why in Hylia he would prefer boiled pond water over his surely cleaner well water. Or maybe it needed refilling? That boy was a mystery. 

She rinsed the last few mushrooms, looking upon the plentiful pile of forageables they had gathered. The stack was quite high, really, and she wondered how many days he expected them to eat cream of mushroom stew for. She recalled the size of the pot he had taken with him, too, and she imagined that this would create a heaping portion that they would most definitely not be able to finish. 

She took up the knife he had set down and continued to peel the carrot left behind. There were three others as well, so she spent the next few minutes working on them. The final carrot was in her hands as the door opened, and she carelessly glanced away from her hand as she turned to greet him excitedly. 

“Did you get the wa-” The knife slipped in her hand, and she squeaked as pain lanced through her finger. She dropped the small blade, and she stumbled backwards and away from it as it clattered to the floor. 

Link all but dropped the pot of water, scrambling to set it on the floor as fast as possible as he rushed over to the counter, concern lacing his features.

She held her finger protectively, instinct forcing her to put pressure on it as droplets of blood dripped from her appendage. Her knight’s body convulsed, ripping through his satchel and grabbing a small roll of bandages (she wondered how in Hylia he ever managed to know where anything was in that black hole of a bag), and snatching her hand out of hers.

“I-I’m fine,” Zelda insisted, her body tugged towards him when he seized her hand. “Just a little cut.”

He completely ignored her, examining the cut himself as he smeared blood away from the injured site. The Princess winced at the accompanying sting, and the look in his eyes was absolutely devastating. He tugged her over to the basin where he gently dipped her hand into, cleaning the area before taking it out and unraveling the bandage with his free hand and his teeth. Carefully, it was circled around her finger, and even though a little spot of blood managed to seep through the first and second layer, by the third the bandage had an outward appearance of its normal white color, but Link wrapped it once more for good measure before ripping it off the roll and tucking the end into the other spirals.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. Her face was flushed, grateful for his concern but embarrassed she had made such a silly mistake. 

The Champion looked deeply troubled for a moment before lifting his hands. _No more knives for you._

He scooted her out of the way before she had the opportunity to retort, leaning down to grab the knife off the floor and running some water from the basin to clean it off.

“I said I am fine,” she insisted, trying to bump him back out of the way. He was too solid a body, though, and she barely made him shift his weight to his other leg.

 _And I said no more knives,_ the hero stubbornly repeated. _Go sit down._

“No,” she grumbled. “I am going to help in some way.”

 _There is nothing left to help with. Go sit down so I can peel without pause,_ he commanded, his gaze hard and unrelenting as he picked up the carrot and knife again after he finished his hand gestures.

Zelda huffed indignantly. “There is plenty to help with! I cannot pick that pot up, so there is only that and cutting that I can do.”

This time Link didn’t bother responding, and the Princess wrinkled her nose. Sometimes he could be unendingly irritating the way that he would get when he set his mind to something.

“Do not ignore me,” she demanded.

Link only stared harder at the task in front of him, his jaw set rigid.

“You are so unbelievably childish sometimes!” She exclaimed breathily. “I get one little cut and you completely shut down.”

His gaze snapped to hers, and he set the vegetable and knife down, grabbing the wrist of the hand that she had the injured finger on. She tried to yank it back, unwilling to play his games right now, but the way he stared at her had her frozen in her tracks.

 _This,_ he pointed to the injured finger before releasing her hand to finish what he was going to say, _happened when I took my eyes off of you. It does not matter if you think it is small or not. When you bleed, my oath chips a little more._

“Do not make this about you,” she hissed. “I am hylian, just like you! I make mistakes on my own without you, thank you _very_ much.”

 _These things should never happen in the first place,_ he argued.

“Then show me how to do it right so it does not happen again!” She cried, seething at his obstinance.

Link growled in his throat, trying to stare her into losing the battle of wills that this had become, but she held his gaze just as fiercely. 

A beat later, and Link looked away, scoffing. _Come here,_ he said.

The Princess, very much still in her competitive mode, didn’t move at first, but she stepped closer upon hearing his concession. 

He stepped to the side of the vegetables, gesturing her to move in front of them where she would cut them. She eyed him suspiciously as she followed his instructions, but was surprised when the warmth of his body pressed up against her from behind. His chest pressed against her back as he settled his head to rest just beside her, and suddenly the height difference that he had acquired since defeating Calamity Ganon was rather apparent. She could feel the Champion’s warm breath as he exhaled against her ear, and she chased away the color that threatened to rush to her cheeks.

 _Take the knife,_ he instructed, his hands signing in front of her as his arms came around her waist.

No longer in the right mind to argue, Zelda obeyed, taking the utensil and being sure to leave the injured finger off of its grip. He adjusted the vegetable in front of her in a way that would be easy to cut, and he covered her hands in his own as he guided her to slice into it.

The entire process was silent, but the Princess didn’t mind that. It was strange watching him prepare the food like this, because she couldn’t find another adjective to describe it other than beautiful. The same boy who had helped her seal away an ancient evil was one of the most brilliant chefs she had ever met, and the way he guided her hands to make the smoothest, straightest cuts was something otherworldly. He was completely focused behind her, his eyes glued to what was in front of him, and even though her heart beat wildly in her chest at their proximity, his own heart was calm.

The way he did this made it look so easy. Zelda knew the struggle she had sometimes with this task, almost fighting against the food item as she tried to use force to cut through it. But Link faced none of that, it seemed. The knife slid through the carrot as if it were butter, and the blade never seemed to leave the counter. 

Zelda swore that not even a few seconds passed before everything that needed slicing had been dealt with, and she missed the heat of his body immediately as he stepped back and slipped the knife out of her grasp.

 _Knife privileges have still been revoked,_ he signed, his eyes serious.

“O-okay,” the Princess agreed, all of her mental capacity drained.

Link walked over to grab the pot of water, heaving it onto the stovetop as Zelda grabbed the kindling and lit it. While it came to a boil, Zelda finally sat down like she had been instructed earlier, content now that she felt like there was nothing else for her to do at the moment to reopen the romance novel she had picked up before they went out to the general store. Her knight, with nothing to do but wait, leaned against the counter tugging at his hair impatiently.

She noticed him trying to comb through it with his hands, grimacing when he caught a knot and pulling out his ponytail as if that would help.

“Do you want me to brush it for you?” She asked, making him look up. “I have a brush and some hair oil that should assist a little.”

The Champion considered this for a moment before he sighed and nodded defeatedly. The smile that spread across her face as she jumped out of her chair and up the stairs, though, he decided, was worth it. 

Zelda came back down armed to the teeth with two different kinds of brushes, and several phials of yellow-isih oil all labeled separately. The way she brandished them like weapons at him made him feel like maybe he had agreed to something he might not be able to survive, and part of him told him to run while he still could.

But instead, he plopped himself down on the chair she pointed at, flinching when he felt fingers against his scalp tug his blond locks over the backrest. He leaned back until he was flicked square on the top of his head, and he resisted the urge to whip around offendedly. 

After that, though, her fingers were gentle, and Link leaned into the feeling as he relaxed backwards. He tugged at some of the bangs that still hung in his face, looking up at them as she began running the brush over the back of his head. His hair was a little oily already, he observed. He supposed that was natural, though. He didn’t really have anything to clean his hair with other than the bar of soap and water, and sometimes there would be days where he was just too tired to bathe, or didn’t even have the time. Zelda batted his hand away though, seizing the strands of his bangs he had been glaring at and pulling them back with the rest of his hair. 

The Princess worked through each knot she came across carefully, not wanting to tug too hard against his scalp. She recalled how her father used to have to comb her hair after her mother had passed, and knew how unpleasant such an experience could be without tender hands. As she did, she made sure to comfortingly rake her fingers through it, killing two birds with one stone by working the hair oil into his dirty blond locks while also relaxing her knight. She could tell his shoulders were a little tense, so she made it her goal to get rid of that.

Ten minutes passed and the water was beginning to simmer, but Link had closed his eyes and submitted himself fully to the freakishly calming sensation of pressure against his head. He felt like he could sleep for eternity like this if he didn’t already know how much something like that sucked. Knowing that it was the Princess behind him didn’t hurt either. His heart wasn’t rapid in his chest, but he could clearly hear every beat of it as it echoed in his ears. 

He just loved her so much.

“There,” she said, her words spiralling the knight out of his thoughts before they could overtake him. “That should do it.”

He almost whined at the loss of her fingers as they retracted, but as he brushed his hand against his long hair, he marveled at its new softness.

She giggled, and his chest clenched at the noise. His gaze fell to her hands, where they clutched the brush, and his eyes landed on the wrapped finger. An entirely different feeling hit him all at once, and he turned in his chair to take the hand in his own and look it over again as if he had missed something the first time.

“It is fine,” she mumbled reassuringly, using her free hand to brush into the bangs that fell into his face again now that he was sitting upright.

He caught her eye, and she found herself lost in the deep blues of his own before he looked back down at her hand. Link brought it up to his mouth suddenly, pressing a kiss against the first knuckle of her injured finger.

Heat rushed to the Princess’s face at the soft gesture, and she avoided his gaze when the warmth of his lips left her skin.

The tell-tale gurgling sound of water boiling interrupted their moment, and Link’s eyes snapped up to the pot on the stovetop. He let her hand go reluctantly, clearing his throat as he made his way over to the pot and peaking in. Zelda followed him closely from behind, mimicking his actions to find the pot bubbling.

Link reached for the milk, uncapping both bottles and carefully pouring them in. Zelda tried not to grimace at the fact that he had just poured milk into water, and focused instead on how good the resulting food would taste. The Champion gathered up the mushrooms and vegetables, gingerly tossing them in without causing any liquid to splash back up at them. 

Zelda anticipated his next move, reaching into the cabinet and pulling out the clump of rock salt. Link took it appreciatively, taking the knife they had used to cut the vegetables and started picking away at the edges. After a satisfactory amount had been added to the mixture, Link handed the rock back to her, and she put it back into the cabinet while he searched through a drawer and pulled out a ladle. 

She watched with fascination as he slowly stirred, turning his attention to some of the herbs they had picked and quickly chopping them. He tossed them in, and Zelda watched as they slowly sunk in.

It was only a moment later that the smell began to permeate the air, and her mouth watered at it. Link looked all too proud with himself as he gaze down at his creation.

“That smells so good,” the Princess moaned, sagging against the counter a safe distance away from the small flame of the stovetop.

 _It is not even time for supper yet,_ he signed, chuckling.

“Don’t care,” she mumbled. “I could probably eat your cooking all day.”

Link shook his head, doing nothing to hide the smile on his face as he reached over to pet her hair. He quickly tied his hair back again, and couldn’t resist the urge to tap her on the head with the handle of the ladle before setting it down next to the stovetop and walking out of the makeshift kitchen area. 

The girl half-jogged back over to the table, taking her seat back where her book lay face-down against the wood. “So how long until it is ready, do you think?”

Link turned to her, standing in front of the bookshelf as he pulled the notepad and pen stuck in his belt out and set it in one of its drawers. _Probably an hour or so,_ he replied after freeing his hands. _If you are hungry now, though, I could make something snacky pretty quickly._

“Hmm…” she hummed. “What do you have that we could make? We do not exactly have too many things to cook with in that provisions bag.”

 _I have some nonperishables in my satchel. Unless, of course, you loathe the idea of eating anything that comes out of that thing,_ he teased, already striding over to where he left it.

“That thing may be blessed by the koroks, but as far as I am concerned, the things you foraged upwards a month ago simply do not interest me, even if they were to come from somewhere other than that satchel,” Zelda said primly.

 _Even if it meant I could make you cake?_

Zelda’s jaw dropped. “You have what it takes to make cake? And you neglected to say anything?”

 _I was worried that if you knew, we would be having that for dinner instead. But since you refuse the allegedly month-old wheat and cane sugar in my satchel, which, by the way, are not actually a month old, I suppose you will just have to live without._ The knight sighed dramatically, dropping the satchel to the ground. It disturbed her that there was no heavy thunk that followed considering he must have at least twenty different weapons in there.

“Why, you! Give me that bag!” She insisted, leaping out of her chair.

Link snatched it up from the floor, holding it high above his head.

“Curse you and your newfound height,” she snarled, jumping to grab the bag out of his hands. “I demand that you return to how tall you used to be!”

Link, unable to respond, only laughed, amused at her reaction.

The Princess growled before ducking, jumping to his side, and swinging at the back of his knees. 

The Champion yelped as his legs buckled beneath him, and Zelda used this triumphant moment to swing around in front of him again, pin him down, and snatch the satchel from him.

“Ha!” She jeered, smiling victoriously. 

Link could only laugh, knowing he had been bested. 

But after the moment passed, both of them noticed the position they were in. Zelda had his hips straddled, both her knees on either sides of his pelvis, and both of their faces lit up. She all but pounced off of him, clutching the satchel to her chest as she stammered out an apology.

Link fidgeted himself, bringing himself to his knees and out of such a suggestive position.

“A-anyway! I win,” Zelda said shrilly. “Cake now, please.”

Link nodded his head, blushing at the tips of his ears as he took the bag and rummaged through it. Somehow the tabantha wheat and cane sugar he pulled out seemed rather new, and she wondered when he had time to acquire those given his full time duty as a knight.

They brought themselves off the floor, the Princess taking he guard’s proffered hand gratefully. Her legs and body were a little sore from his emergency dismount training earlier, so being able to rely on him, even if it was just a small courtesy, was sweet.

He set to work grinding the wheat while the Princess measured out an appropriate amount of sugar and then a little more, setting it to the side as per his instructions. She was not allowed to cut any fruit, but he told her she could at least pick out what she wanted on the cake. After her venture in the kitchen this morning, there wasn’t very much fruit left, so her options were limited. She decided, though, on some mighty banana, wildberry, and apple, so she put them to the side for him to cut.

Link began combining ingredients as she watched to the side, fidgeting excitedly as she did. While he was mixing, Zelda leaned her head against his left shoulder, liking the way his motions stuttered when she did. Finally, everything had been added to his bow, and he promptly stuck it into his small oven.

“Will that not give it a funny shape?” She asked, gesturing to the half-circle shape of the bowl.

 _I do not have any cake pans, so this will have to do,_ he explained, bringing himself back up to his full height after having to crouch down to stick the cake into the oven. He peeked over the pot of still-boiling soup, and he nudged her to do the same. _This looks ready. Are you hungry?_

Zelda’s head nodded eagerly. “I will get tableware set.”

The Champion chuckled at her enthusiasm, turning his attention to grab some bowls from one of the cabinets. He carefully portioned out two servings, handing hers over to greedy hands as she nearly vibrated with excitement. 

_It is just cream of mushroom soup,_ Link signed with a lopsided smile.

“Yes, but I have never tasted anything you have made that was anything less than extraordinary, so I am allowed my level of eagerness.”

Her knight sighed with a chuckle, dishing out his own portion before following his charge to the table. He rushed ahead of her to set his bowl down with barely enough time before she got too close to pull her chair out for her, and the gesture made her chest squeeze with affection.

They ate quietly before curiosity overcame her. She knew he didn’t like to talk about the time after his Awakening, but she figured that the subject of his house was innocent enough of a topic, but found he was all too happy to share the details.

“I wonder if the house belonged to another guardsman,” she wondered aloud, taking another spoonful of soup into her mouth.

 _I am not sure. Bolson just mentioned that it was someone with summons to the castle and never returned. Either way, they were trying to demolish it, so I think I scored a rather good deal out of it,_ Link replied, already finished with his bowl.

“You absolutely did. Three thousand rupees, even without furniture, is an utterly fantastic price to purchase real estate at.””

 _And to think I had to spend more than three times that on the Great Fairy out in Gerudo Desert._ He chuckled.

Zelda choked on her food, coughing a few times before swallowing and rasping, “How much did you spend on Tera!?”

 _Ten thousand rupees,_ he responded, his head drooping. _She did upgrade my barbarian armor to the max, though, so I cannot really complain._

“Somehow I do not think fully upgraded barbarian armor is worth ten thousand rupees,” the Princess coughed out.

Her partner shrugged. _No, it really is. I kicked serious ass with that armor._

After regaining some of her composure, she was shocked to see him swear. She had only ever seen him do that when he was angry or upset, so it was refreshing seeing him use it casually. She had done the same that morning, and she supposed he must have had the same reaction.

“Ah, yes,” Zelda hummed. “Shorter than short shorts, covered in beguiling red regalia, and wearing a horned skull on top is most definitely appropriate attire for kicking ass.”

Link’s head nodded in agreement. _Second only to my Gerudo outfit._

The Princess laughed. “You mean those threadbare drapes? I admit, they are certainly flattering on you, but I sincerely doubt they offer any real protection against anything other than the heat.”

 _You know I took out the Yiga Clan in those, right?_

“You did?”

 _I did! I thought it was inconvenient to change into something else, so I just went in like that._

“Oh, I cannot imagine the terror of those poor fools…” Zelda hummed. “Thinking this day is like any other, only to be beaten blindly by a little hylian in women’s clothing.”

 _They would not have been able to tell I was a man,_ he reasoned. _After all, I managed to get into Gerudo. If I could fool the front guards, I most certainly fooled the Yiga._

“You are right. I truly cannot fathom how that organization lasted for so long.”

 _Or how they are once again on the rise,_ Link signed.

The Princess could only sigh deeply. “I wonder if things will ever truly calm down. Even one day without worry would be nice.”

The Champion got out of his seat, reaching for her now empty bowl to collect with his. He set them in the sink before checking to make sure she was looking over before signing. _That is what this week is supposed to be about._

She smiled. “Again, you are right.”

Link returned her grin. _So come help me make frosting._

She couldn’t help but jump out of her chair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tried to add some fluffy, domestic things. Hopefully I hit the nail somewhere along the way Ü.


	10. Giving and Getting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be posted on October 15, 2020.

“You just _have_ to tell me your secret,” Zelda whined, shoving another forkful of cake into her mouth. 

_There is no secret,_ Link replied, still chewing on his bite.

“But none of the fruits I picked out should ever taste good side by side, and yet they do, and the frosting is soft and sweet, and the cake is spongy and moist, and I am ordering you to tell me your secret.”

 _If there was one to give, I would gladly let you hear it,_ the Champion laughed.

She groaned. “Hylia has blessed you with culinary perfection.”

_I do like these compliments._

“Feeding me has that effect, does it not?” The Princess teased. “Have you never heard the phrase? The key to a woman’s heart is her stomach.”

Link’s sides shook as his laughter intensified. _No, I have never heard that one. So far, though, it is proving to be true._

“Mm,” Zelda hummed, “I assure you it has not only been through just feeding me.” They left her mouth before she could stop them, and she felt heat rise to her face, mirroring his own reaction. “Y-you know, like also always protecting me, and keeping me company and stuff,” she backpedaled quickly.

Her knight’s face lost none of its redness, and he shoved another forkful of cake into his mouth without grace, swallowing it without chewing first. He coughed, of course, then cleared his throat violently. _Guess I just need to keep doing what I am doing, then,_ he signed quickly.

The Princess felt silly once again for how flustered they were both getting around each other after having been an item for so long now, but it was sweet in a way. Besides, it was comforting to know that she wasn’t the only one finding herself embarrassed.

Glancing out the window, she could see the orange light of dusk settling over the hills, and she remembered suddenly that the horses had not been fed.

“I am going to go grab a bale for Storm,” she said, snapping them both out of the moment. “Will Galen need one as well?”

 _I can just come help,_ Link reasoned, gathering up their dishes into his hand.

“Oh, that is okay, I can handle it. The bales are just behind the house right?”

Link nodded, but began following her anyway. _I will refill and wash out their water buckets if you bring out a bale. But to answer your question, no, Galen will not need his own. He has been grazing all day and will graze all night, so he will be fine._

“Thank you,” Zelda mumbled, genuinely touched by his willingness to assist her. They left out the front door, turning left towards the little stalls to the side.

Storm was dozing, but flicked his ears up at their approach. Galen was nowhere to be seen, however. Link didn’t seem concerned about it, though, and he tipped the water buckets over before grabbing a scrubbing brush off to the side. Zelda left to find the hay, which was right where he said it was, stacked neatly against the back wall. It was heavier than she expected, but she managed to drag it over with a rest in between hauling it. Link tried to come over and help, but she shooed him away, dropping the bale and cutting the twine that held it in front of the white stallion.

Link whistled shrilly, and as he finished scrubbing out the water bins the Princess began to feel a little uneasy that her knight’s horse hadn’t come galloping home yet. Her fears were eased, however, when after several seconds she heard the telltale thunder of hooves, and watched Galen crest the hill to their south. He was covered in dry dirt, and Link sighed resignedly as he finished setting down the now clean water buckets in their appropriate places before reaching for a brush.

Zelda pet Storm while her guard cleaned off his horse who seemed all too eager to have been called by his master. The bay stallion nudged the hero playfully, snorting when Link’s gloved hand pressed against his neck, but otherwise stood still while he was brushed.

“He really loves you, you know,” Zelda commented, marveling at how the horse stood in place rather obediently. “Not every horse comes when called, nor does he stand untethered without food or water in front of him.”

Link only chuckled, flicking off the dirt from the stallion’s coat before deciding he was satisfied with his work and pulling back. Galen plodded after him as he walked over to his wooden box to the side of the stalls where all of his brushes were, and tossed the one in his hands in. The Champion shooed the animal away, and his mount snorted before trotting into the only other open stall and taking a drink of water.

The knight lifted his hands as if ready to sign something, but lowered them slowly as his gaze fixed on something behind the Princess. She turned, following his line of sight, only to fall on a figure crossing the bridge towards them. It was a man in simple garb, and as he got closer Zelda recognized him. Panic surged through her, her face going sheet white. She had completely forgotten about this person in the village, never stopping to consider that they may be seen together here by him.

Link didn’t seem surprised, though, and only stood there with a friendly smile on his face as Reede approached them.

“If I had known her Highness was coming, I would have prepared something in advance,” he said when he came into earshot. “What in Hylia are you both doing here? And Princess, shouldn’t you be planning the coronation?”

“H-how did you know it was me?” She squeaked.

Reede sighed, lifting his hand to stroke his beard. “You haven’t exactly been subtle. Link is never to leave your side, your hair is stunningly recognizable - cut as it has been - and your horse is the most brilliant shade of white that anyone who has seen it before would automatically know who it belongs to. So I will ask again, what in Hylia are you two doing here?”

“The coronation has already been planned,” Zelda began sheepishly. “I have about two and a half months before the set date, so I thought I could take some time off. If it makes you feel any better, we are headed to Gerudo after this week for official business. I just hoped I could have a bit of respite for a little while.”

“Did it occur to you that the absence of royalty in the castle may be incentive for the opposition to advance on the kingdom?” Reede jabbed.

 _Technically no one is supposed to know she left,_ Link signed quickly. _We would appreciate it if you helped us keep it that way._

“Again, you haven’t been subtle,” the man deadpanned. 

“We will be more careful,” Zelda promised, feeling as small as she did whenever her father chastised her.

Reede sighed, then eyed the two. “I visited the inn, but they told me they didn’t have any blonde visitors. Do you intend to tell me that you two have been staying in this house together?”

The Princess’s eyes widened, knowing exactly what conclusion he had drawn. It was natural, wasn’t it? Of course someone would find out! Goddesses, Impa had been able to see through them, so why wouldn’t anyone else? Panic coursed through her veins.

 _Yes, sir,_ Link replied for her, elaborating no further.

The man’s eyes narrowed. “Then I am sure you are aware of your bedding accommodations. Am I wrong to assume that there is only one bed in that house?”

 _No, sir,_ Link said, holding his gaze unwaveringly. 

Reede glared at them, and the two stiffened. This wasn’t a fight they were prepared to pick, but they had been thrust into it without prior knowledge. Zelda knew that Link would never lie to anyone, but for once in her life she wished that he would.

The village head sighed deeply for the umpteenth time, then waved them both to follow as he turned on his heels. “Come on, now, neither of you are in trouble,” he said as if they were children. 

Zelda exchanged a nervous glance with Link before he hesitantly followed after him. _We cannot afford not to follow him,_ Link signed quickly behind Reede’s back. _I will not lie to him, but I will protect you._

It felt strange to her when the Princess lifted up her hands herself, far more used to interpreting it than actually trying to do it herself. So when she replied with, _Cannot suspicious,_ she was grateful that he had understood her well enough, acknowledging it with a nod.

“Where are we going?” Zelda asked cautiously as they crossed the wooden bridge.

“When Clavia heard that Link was back in town, she knew that the princess must have also accompanied him, so she would like to meet you if that is alright with you, your high-”

“Hana,” the Princess corrected. When Reede looked back at her curiously, she continued. “Discretion, if you please.”

“Of course,” the head said. “As I was saying, she would like to meet you.”

“Has my cover been completely blown, then?” She asked, looking down at her feet.

“I have already explained your lack of subtlety multiple times, but I firmly believe that no one else is aware of your presence here, so you can rest easily.” Reede paused. “I do, however, suggest that you find another horse. As magnificent of a creature as your mount is, he is too recognizable to expect him not to draw attention.”

Zelda pouted. After the progress she had made that afternoon, she was hoping she would be able to improve even further, but if they were going to need to remain unseen, then that was a sacrifice she would have to make.

 _What if I rode Storm? I tamed him, after all,_ Link suggested.

“Oh, good idea!” She cheered, thankful that she may not have to part ways with her steed after all. 

“Hm?” Reede inquired.

“Link suggested that he ride my horse. Many people know that the hero tamed one of the descendants of the royal horses, so it would not be strange to see him riding his own horse,” Zelda repeated.

“Unfortunately that doesn’t change the fact that people may be able to piece together the fact that he is to remain at your side as a knight, but that’s a good start.”

The Princess huffed. The group followed the path westward until they reached Reede’s home, and his wife and child waited outside the door.

“Wow!” The little girl exclaimed, watching the two approach. “Is that her? Is that her?”

“Yes, darling,” The woman soothed. “And that is the man from your book that you used to read. Can’t you see the resemblance?”

Link looked shocked for a moment, his eyes widening a little. _Her book?_ He signed to Reede.

The man chuckled. “There are storybooks about your heroics at Fort Hateno from Before. On rainy days, it was all she would read.”

A glitter of happiness flashed through Link’s eyes, followed by a rush of dejection that Zelda didn’t miss. She bumped his arm gently, giving him a soft smile that she hoped he could tell was meant to be silent words of encouragement. She knew it had worked when her knight huffed, bumping her back with his own smile.

“Oh, you two,” gushed the woman on the porch, startling the youths from their shared moment to snap their eyes back in front of them. 

“Forgive the late introductions, but this is my wife, Clavia, and my daughter, Karin,” Reede said, gesturing to his family. His wife happily took his hand and bunched her daughter close to her, and Zelda couldn’t help but admire the absolute aura of familial happiness that surrounded them. “Please,” the man continued. “Come inside. I wish to speak to both of you.”

The admiration faded, and the knight and his charge entered the home hesitantly. Reede rushed his daughter off to her room to “let the grown-ups have a talk,” and Clavia insisted that she go make tea for everyone, presumably to allow the head, princess, and knight to share some privacy for a moment. 

They were all gathered onto a common sofa except for Reede who took an armchair across from them. There was a coffee table between them, but that did little to put much of a barrier between the two. Link tried to remain standing, but the other man firmly commanded him to sit, and he did. 

Reede began with another sigh, looking both of them in the eye before opening his mouth. “I implore you both to be honest with your answer when I ask you this question.”

Zelda stiffened, but Link remained calm. It was strange to her how he managed to maintain his composure when they had been more or less been caught red-handedly, and it made her wonder whether or not he expected it. It was foolish of her not to, after all, but at the time she just didn’t want to care. In fact, she knew deep down that she didn’t. Propriety and politics be damned, she knew she was never one for appearances anyway, so why should now be different? Especially when she felt the way she did.

“Link, you both are sharing the bed, aren’t you?” Reede directed his question wisely at the completely honest knight across from him.

He hesitated, but he nodded. Casting a quick side glance to the Princess. He lifted his hands and very calmly signed, _I can assure you that this is nothing we have not done before. For example, when we visit Rito Village, it is imperative for both of us to stay warm, so we-_

Reede held up his hand, stopping his explanation. “You know that is not what I meant.”

Link’s mouth opened, surprising everyone, but the knight looked down and closed it. 

“How long have you two been an item?” The head asked carefully, keeping his voice down.

Zelda fidgeted in her seat, but spoke up before Link could answer again. It wasn’t fair that he had to protect them both all the time, after all. She was going to help. “About six months, now,” she admitted quietly.

The man scratched his beard thoughtfully for a moment before speaking again. “And you realize that if this were to get out, Link would need to leave? And by leave, I mean he would be permanently sent away?”

Their eyes shot up, but Zelda couldn’t say she was completely surprised to hear it. She had thought about the consequences before - it would go against every rule for a knight to be romantically involved with his charge, and in the military’s eyes, that was often seen as treason. With a conflict of interest, they would undoubtedly strip him of his title and send him away, even if the Princess protested.

“I- I can stop that from happening, though. As queen, I would be able to stop that,” the Princess stammered. 

“I’m afraid that if the council comes to the conclusion that Link’s absence would benefit your image as queen, they would overrule your objection,” Reede explained gently, clasping his hands in his lap.

Link’s hands curled into fists at his sides before raising them. _I will not let it come to that._

“You won’t?” The other man questioned, looking him in the eye. “I’ve come to that conclusion, and I only happened to put the simplest of puzzles together to do so.”

No one spoke for a heavy minute, Zelda staring into her lap while Link’s teeth ground together beside her. 

“Princess,” the head spoke again, breaking the silence. “I hope you have not forgotten King Dorephan’s plans. Assuming that the upcoming coronation is not enough, you will be required to take a husband. And eventually, of course, produce heirs.”

The knight’s body visibly seized at the mention, and both turned to him.

“I…” Zelda trailed off, recounting the words spoken to her that she still had yet to swallow. “It will not come to that point. I will make sure of it.”

“You cannot guarantee that, Your Highness,” Reede reasoned. 

Again, silence fell, and the whole room went devoid of warmth. The shelves that decorated the house’s walls, filled with happy familial paintings, suddenly seemed lonely and baren, and the smiles of the people in them were stripped of their integrity. It occurred to them all that Clavia must have been done making tea for everyone a long time ago, but the fact that she had kept herself busy in the kitchen all this time was proof that she had at least some notion of what was going on, and had opted not to shove her nose in; something the Princess felt eternally grateful for. She wasn’t sure if she could handle another person listening in right now. 

The man breathed deeply before continuing. “I do not wish to make it seem like I am your enemy in all of this,” Reede said, meeting their eyes. “In fact, I know the both of you well enough at this point that I believe you both deserve a little bit of happiness in your lives after everything that you have gone through. If you two are ever discovered, you can count on me to vouch for you both, but I cannot ensure that there won’t be consequences even if, by some miracle, the majority doesn’t rule differently.”

“Thank you,” Zelda whispered, almost too quietly to hear. “Impa has also given us her blessing, if that means anything.”

Reede’s gaze settled on her with raised brows, but Link whipped around to her with a wild expression. 

_Impa knows?_ He signed quickly after recovering from his initial shock. 

“She has for awhile, apparently,” Zelda explained. “She told me so the day we left Zora’s Domain.”

The tips of Link’s ears went pink, and Reede chucked amusedly. “It would surprise me if she didn’t, that woman. I would bet my left arm that Purah has caught on as well if Impa has.”

The Champion’s hand scrubbed his face at the thought, and Zelda felt a similar dread overtake her body. “Oh goddesses, that is not a conversation I look forward to,” she mumbled.

“It may be a good one to have. You will need support in this if you plan to go through with it. I would advise you to be more careful, but unfortunately I think that it’s inevitable that more people will discover you both as you continue. So jump in with both feet, but be careful not to let the wave you create hit you as you do.” The man smiled at them both.

Link stood abruptly, and the others’ eyes snapped to him as he bowed deeply. _I cannot express how much your support means to us,_ he signed, his body still bent at the hip. _We will be more careful in the future._

Reede chuckled as Zelda’s face went red, and he waved the boy back up into a standing position. “No need for such formalities, knight. I only hope that this goes as well for you both as you hope it does.”

With a tight-lipped smile, he bowed again, then sat back down stiffly next to the Princess. 

“Princess, would you mind going and checking on Clavia? She may need some help with the tea,” Reede smiled. 

Zelda nodded quickly, casting a curious glance at the man before standing and walking off to the corner of the house with the kitchen. Clavia was indeed still in there, but the tea was very much done and setting on a small silver platter on their table. The brunette woman smiled at her as she came over.

“It is so good to finally meet you, Your Highness,” she said, curtseying swiftly.

“Please, just Zelda is fine,” the Princess insisted, then paused. “Thank you for allowing us that privacy. I am truly grateful.”

The woman smiled, her eyes wrinkling with knowing mirth. “I figured it might be a little uncomfortable with more ears than you needed, but I am happy that it made that a little easier. Forgive me for not following through with my offer of tea, though. I expected that conversation to gradually get to your relationship, but my husband really dove straight into it, just as he always did.” Clavia chuckled, looking down at what was in front of her on the counter. “I have been making these little sandwiches in the meantime. Karin likes to have something to snack on just before bed, but I made a few extras in case you both might want some.”

“Thank you so much.” Zelda smiled. “We ate just before Reede found us, so I am not actually that hungry, but I am sure Link would appreciate a few.”

The older woman laughed, staging the sandwiches on the plate as she looked over her shoulder at the boys. Zelda followed her gaze, only to see Reede writing something down on a small pad of paper while signing to the knight. The Princess frowned, unable to tell what exactly he was saying to her guard, but Link’s face was five shades darker than normal, looking like he was about to pass out. 

Clavia put her hand to her mouth delicately, trying to hide her smile. “Oh, dear,” she said with mirth, “I do hope my husband goes easy on him.”

“What do you mean?” Zelda asked, turning back towards the woman. 

She waved her hand, a little wrinkled with age. “I am sure he will talk to you about it later. Come, now, let us go rescue him with some refreshments.”

The Princess frowned curiously, but picked up the small platter with the teacups as Clavia reached for it, insisting that she already had her hands full with the sandwiches. At the sound of their footsteps approaching and Link’s blush spreading down past his neck, he snatched the paper from off the coffee table and shoved it into his pocket, causing Reede to snicker. 

“Thank you, angel,” Reede said lovingly as his wife set down the sandwiches.

Clavia laid a kiss on his forehead, and Zelda recalled how that felt from earlier that day fondly. She wondered briefly if this was what it would be like if she and Link were allowed to grow old together. 

She sincerely hoped it would.

“Karin,” Clavia called, waiting a beat for the sound of rushed little footsteps before a head of curly brown hair popped over the banister from above. “Come show Master Link your book.”

As Zelda took a seat next to Link, offering him his cup of tea, he took it with a jerky motion, looking anywhere but her face as he quickly signed a thank you one-handedly and downed the drink in one motion. He scooted a little away from her, and she was taken aback at the reaction, wondering just what Reede had been talking about to make him so fidgety like this right now.

A flurry of pitter pattering footsteps cascaded down the stairs as the excited child bubbly began talking at the Champion, tugging him off the sofa where he sat as soon as she got close enough. He followed after her tiny grip, casting a glance that asked for permission from her parents as he was dragged to the floor where he sat across from the little girl. Upon receiving their mutual nod of approval, he turned his attention to Karin who was excited pointing to the title of the book.

It became apparent that she probably couldn’t read, having memorised the title after having her parents tell it to her several times, and there being no words accompanying any of the illustrations on the following pages. 

At first, Link seemed overjoyed to be looking at a part of his past, drinking in the illustrations of the heroic figure dressed in blue with a glowing sword. It only took him a few pages, though, to realize what this book was recounting. As the girl continued to prattle on, his face slowly fell, and his eyes lost their enthusiasm. Zelda noticed this immediately, and got off the couch to crouch down next to him. Karin greeted her with unbridled excitement, and as the Princess returned her smiles and her laughs, she laid a comforting hand on Link’s discreetly, squeezing it.

The Champion blinked a few times, and with a quick glance to the side, she noticed there was moisture in his eyes, but it was gone as soon as it came. Instead, he clenched his jaw and smiled again, encouraging the child to continue flipping through the pages.

Zelda thought it morbid that anyone would ever create a children’s picture book of the events that perspired in the Blatchery Plains, holding her breath when she came upon the part she knew they were both dreading. Only, as Karin flipped the final page, it was instead an illustration of a crippled Hateno Fort, dead Guardians clutching onto the remains of the wall that still stood tall. She supposed that there wouldn’t have been anyone to witness what had happened next, but she felt relieved that this is what people had chosen to remember. 

“How did you do that?” Karin cried, wide-eyed and staring at the Champion. “I mean, you probably took down, like, twenty whole Guardians, _and_ you protected all of Hateno!”

Link did his best to force a convincing smile, but whether he didn’t raise his hands because the girl didn’t know sign language or because he didn’t want to answer, Zelda didn’t know.

Clavia awkwardly stood, shooing the child off suddenly. “Alright, dear, I think Master Link is tired. Off to bed with you, now.”

“B-but I just came down,” Karin whined, closing the book and clutching it to her chest.

“Go on, now, don’t make your mother repeat herself,” Reede said, motioning towards the stairs.

The little girl humphed, but followed the commands of her parents, scurrying back up the stairs.

Zelda watched her until she was out of sight, then turned concerned eyes upon her knight beside her. “Are you okay?” She asked softly, squeezing his hand again.

Link nodded stiffly, grabbing the back of his neck and tugging on it anxiously as he stood. He returned the squeeze of her hand before he did, though.

“Forgive me, I did not think about the memories that may have dredged up,” Clavia said softly, her eyes downcast. 

_It is fine,_ Link signed curtly, avoiding her gaze. _It happened a long time ago._

“That does not make it any easier,” Reede concluded. After a moment he spoke again. “We hope you know that Hateno is ever grateful for everything you have done for us.”

The knight looked up, a desperate sadness in his eyes. 

“Hateno would be in ruin if not for what you did for this village one hundred years ago,” the man continued, his wife nodding subtly beside him. “No one blames you for your absence, and we are eternally thankful for everything you have done for us even since your return.”

Zelda stood abruptly when a single tear left the corner of the Champion’s blue, blue left eye, and he quickly wiped it away with the back of his hand. She gently placed her palm against his shoulder, rubbing her thumb in comforting circles as he took a moment to gather himself.

Suddenly, he fell to one knee, several tears falling from his eyes hidden behind his bangs. _I am here to serve Hyrule and my charge,_ he signed quickly with his hands. _I am here to serve._

Clavia’s lip trembled, smiling softly as she walked towards him and bent to take his arm and gently pull him back to his feet. As soon as he was standing again, his eyes red from his tears, she pulled him into a kind of hug that only mothers could give, curling her hand around the back of his neck as she pressed his face into her shoulder.

“Oh, you poor things,” she mumbled as the knight stood there stiffly. “The world has not been kind to you.”

Zelda felt her own tears well up, both of the heroes feeling the heavy truth of her statement resonate within them, but she didn’t let them fall. Because the truth was that even though the world _had_ been cruel to them, they had survived. Everything that it had thrown at them so far, they had _lived,_ and that alone was enough to keep her from sobbing where she stood. 

Link, frozen in place, felt his brows furrow deeply as he bit his cheek to keep from breaking down in the woman’s arms. Instead, he hesitantly returned her hug, indulging in the comfort of her embrace.

The rest of their time spent there was filled with quiet conversations about much lighter topics, and Link ended up eating at least three of the homemade sandwiches. After some time to calm down, he had even brought one up to Karin, who cheered so loudly that it could be heard from the first floor. A few hours later they were standing at the door to the residence and saying their goodbyes.

“Thank you. For your kindness, hospitality, and your support,” Zelda said, lowering her head. “Truly, if we ever find a way to repay you, we will.”

“Nonsense,” Clavia said, leaning her cheek against her palm with a soft smile. 

“We only wish there was more we could do,” Reede said. Then he turned to the knight, and gave him a look. “Remember what I told you, boy.”

Pink dusted the Champion’s cheeks for a moment before he nodded awkwardly. Again, Zelda passed a strange look at the two of them.

“Have a good night,” the Princess bade, the youths bowing respectfully before turning to head off down the path. The older couple waved them off into the night, a cool temperature settling across the grassy plains of Necluda when the sun had disappeared over the horizon. Stars were high in the sky now, and the crescent moon reflected a silvery light that cast dark shadows from the houses.

Link snuck his hand into hers when they were out of eyeshot, and the two walked together in comfortable silence half of the trip, content to simply absorb the atmosphere around them.

“Are you still doing okay?” She asked him quietly, the sound of gravely dirt beneath their shoes and the chirps of restless crickets the only other things filling the air.

He squeezed her hand thrice, then smiled down at her, reassuring the girl that he was just fine.

“I think that was good for you,” she said as they passed the dye shop. “You never really talk about that.”

Link stared at the ground, something like guilt in his eyes before he let go of her hand to sign an apology followed by, _Would you like me to?_

Zelda giggled, bumping against his shoulder tenderly. “It should not be about whether or not I want you to. It is the same way as your practice with your speech. I want you to want me to help. Or, in this case, to talk.”

The Champion let out a small sigh, but did not respond.

“It is fine if you do not want to,” the Princess said. “But I think that sometimes it can do you good. Like just now at Mister Reede’s house. That was good.”

He nodded solemnly, then lifted his hands. _I wish I had not fallen apart like that._

“It is alright not to be okay,” she started.” We both know that life was never fair to us, and we deserve to feel down about it sometimes. I just…” She gesticulated wildly, trying to find the right words. “I care too much about you to watch you bottle it all away. It is more than fine not to want to talk about it, but keeping it all in one place and letting it condense just is not healthy. That is all I had to say really. Just that that was healthy for you, and that I am proud of you for it,” Zelda said, looking at him with her green eyes and hoping that he understood what she was trying to tell him.

 _I could say the same about you,_ Link finally replied, and for a moment Zelda thought he was trying to argue before he continued. _I hope that you can find safety with me enough to feel like you are able to talk about the one hundred years when you were fighting._

The Princess smiled dryly. “If there was anything to say, I would have. It was not a painful time for me, really. There was an absence of feeling in the first place, to tell the truth. I was not… here. I was the wind, and the sunlight, and I could tell you the location of any animal at all times, but I could never actually see them. And when you left the Shrine of Resurrection, I felt hopeful for the first time, but I could also feel your struggle and your anguish…” She trailed off, disallowing the numbness that came with talking about her time without physical form take her over. Finally, though, she continued. “I could never actually see you either, but I know that you had a difficult time after your Awakening. I will never ask you to discuss it if you do not want to, but I hope you can at least share your burden with me sometimes.”

Her hand slid back into his. 

“After all, I am here for you as much as you are here for me, regardless of your role as my knight, and I as your charge. Because I am your friend firstly, and secondly your duty.” She paused. “At least I hope you see it that way.”

Link’s eyes glittered with kindness and affection, squeezing her hand thrice again before letting go. _Just friends?_ He teased.

“Oh, stop it!” She laughed, hitting him on the arm as he snickered. “We were having a moment!”

 _Sorry, sorry._ He let another silence stretch between them for a few moments before speaking again. _I do feel the same way. In case it was not already obvious._

Zelda’s face would have normally heated at that, but instead all she could feel was the tight constraints of love pulling at her chest. Instead of saying the three words that sat on the tip of her tongue, she said, “I am glad.”

They passed the East Wind, now dark except for candlelight from the topmost floor. She recalled Nebb who had crashed into her knight’s legs earlier that day, and remembered fondly how Link had kept scribbling things down onto his notepad to the happy child.

Then she remembered watching Link scramble to crumple the small sheet of paper Reede had given him, shoving it into his pocket. Not to mention the cryptic “Remember what I told you, boy,” that Reede had left the Champion with.

“Oh, by the way,” Zelda piped up again, ready to voice her curiosity. “What was that paper Reede gave you?”

She watched color rise to Link’s face, reaching up to tug at his earring nervously. His hands were shaky, but they managed to form a coherent sentence. _Just something he thought I should know about. I was… I was going to talk to you about it, actually, but I was not sure how to bring it up._

The Princess frowned. “What is it?”

Instead of answering, he dug the crumpled note and smoothed the wrinkles out of it before handing it over to her. It looked like a list of some kind, and she recognized most of the names. The ones she knew about were all herbs, and she drew the conclusion that (except for the simple ingredient labeled “water”) the rest must also be herbs, and she racked her brain for their effects. 

“Magenta Safflina, thistles, stoneseed root… These - are these not contraceptive herbs?” 

The second it left her mouth the realization of what the list was hit her like a punch to the gut. Reede had given Link a contraceptive elixir ingredient list. Her face immediately went a deep cherry red.

“H-he… he-” She stuttered, heart hammering hard against her chest. 

Link’s arms waved wildly in exaggerated X motions. _I would- I do not want you to think that- I know that sometimes they do not work, and I would never- you do not have to- this does not need--_

She cut him off, batting at his arms. “S-so this is… what? So you can… you can… inside me?” The last part was hissed into the air.

The poor boy looked like he was going to pass out with the amount of blood in his head as he continued to fervently wave his arms incoherently. She was sure that he was trying to sign something, but he was moving much too quickly and without enough refinement to tell what he was actually trying to say.

The Princess flipped the page and found instructions on how to brew, and it was probably unhealthy how utterly humiliated she felt. At the bottom of the page, after the final step, the words “drink every day at the same time” were written in Reede’s curvy handwriting, and she almost collapsed.

Link groaned, clasping his hands against the back of his head and holding his head to the ground, his face guarded by his elbows on both sides and his bangs from the front. His ears were the only things visible, and they twitched anxiously.

“I- I mean we could try it, right?” The Princess finally managed. “Just to- just to be safe!”

He looked at her incredulously, a desperation in his eyes that made him look like some sort of cornered animal. There was embarrassment, but also a plea.

“It s-says that it takes two days to brew, so we could make a few of them when we get to Kakariko tomorrow,” Zelda continued, grasping at every thread of courage in herself.

The Champion glanced at her from the corner of his eye, a grateful expression that could barely be seen from this angle. They stepped onto the bridge, crossing it quickly, and Link paused to briefly check that both the horses were nearby. Storm was still in his stall, and even though Galen’s door was open, he was too, facing the corner and most likely dozing.

They entered through the front door, and she carefully folded the elixir’s recipe into quarters before sticking it in her bag. “We might have to grab some of these on the way there,” she said, managing to find a way to breathe through her flushed face. “They may sell Magenta Safflina and thistles, but stoneseed is a little harder to find. It grows on steep hills, though, I read, so we should be able to grab some around the village when we get there.”

Link’s face was a healthier shade now, but he still avoided her eye by busying himself with cleaning up the cake they had left out. He acknowledged her, though, with a short nod of his head, but stared intensely at the dishes in the basin.

Zelda would have offered to help, but she didn’t want to soak through the bandage he had wrapped around her finger earlier, so she instead helped by putting things away in their respective cabinets, savoring the hot sensation of his fingers brushing against her own whenever their skin touched as he passed her a now clean and dried tableware item. 

When they finished, Link settled down in an armchair that Zelda had not noticed, grabbing one of his shirts and breaking into a small side table to fish out a needle and thread. There was a hole in the fabric, and he began mending it while the Princess reopened the romance novel she had started earlier, but she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of her knight in the other corner of the room.

After ten minutes of simply watching him sew, she had picked herself up out of the chair at the table and waltzed over to him. Upon her arrival at his side, the knight picked himself out of the chair, offering it to her as if it was second nature, but she shook her head.

“We can share,” she offered quietly. “If that is okay.”

Link’s face melted into one of fondness. He grabbed her shoulders, spun her around, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her down between his legs as he flopped back into the cushions. He picked his shirt and needle back up, propping his head on her shoulder as Zelda wiggled until she was comfortable and found a comfortable angle to read from.

It was distracting, feeling his soft exhales from his nose against her ear as the book in front of her described its characters’ first kiss, and the heat of his body that enveloped her forced a shiver to run up her back.

An hour later Link put down the shirt, stored the needle, and settled to hug her against him as he laid a kiss against the back of her neck. She giggled, readjusting the book in her hand as she turned the page, pressing herself back against him comfortably. His eyes scanned the page she was on, and he chuckled lowly behind her.

“What?” She asked, turning her head to catch his eye.

 _You are almost at the good part,_ he signed in front of her, turning his attention to her neck again as he began laying chaste pecks against it. Now that her hair was shorter, there was much more room to do this without having to brush her hair out of the way, and the Princess sighed, craning her neck to the side to allow him more space to continue his peppering kisses.

“Well, do not spoil it,” she hummed, doing her best to focus on the plot. 

_Not spoiling._ His mouth opened and attached to her, leaving a hot, searing sensation that tore through her frame and shot southward in her body. _Just giving you a preview._

She gasped as his teeth nibbled at her flesh, but she did her best to hold her composure. “I cannot believe you own a romance novel with these types of activities within its pages,” she teased, willing her voice not to betray her.

 _Well, the problem with the romance novels I own,_ he began, pausing to mouth at the area just behind her ear, _is that they always stop just short of anything too vulgar._

The moment he was done signing, his hands moved to her waist where he began fingering the hem of her hylian tunic, and she sighed breathily as his calloused fingers ghosted across her skin as they slithered beneath the fabric and up her soft abdomen. 

“Oh?” She asked, arching into his touch as he stopped his advances at just the base of her brassiere. “Well, if this is a preview, you best not leave me on too much of a cliffhanger.”

His hands slipped back out, and she whined softly at the loss. _But that is what makes it a preview. The best part about it is that it leaves you wanting more._

__

__

To emphasize his point, his hands drifted right back under her shirt and this time drifted over the clothed swell of her breasts, and she arched into his touch. His teeth grazed the point of her jaw, his tongue smoothing back over it as if in apology. Zelda shuddered, panting quietly as she closed the book with clumsy hands.

“Goddesses, if I had known this got you so bothered, maybe I would have tried this before,” she cooed as his hands streaked across her sides and behind her, tracing up her spine before unhooking her brassiere. Its straps fell and it immediately lost its effectiveness, falling limply around her waist before Link brought it through the end of her shirt and dropping it to the side of the chair.

He used this opportunity to quickly sign, _Not the book. Just you._

His words oozed into her heart like honey, and she hummed pleasantly as she leaned back against him again while his hands snaked back under her tunic. She could feel him pressing against her against her backside, and she wanted nothing more than to turn around and touch him as well, but her efforts were denied when his hands held her firmly in place.

She whined, struggling weakly against his grip without any real intention behind it, but the sound turned into a soft moan when he pinched a nipple between his thumb and forefinger. Her gasp rang out in the otherwise silent house, and Link sucked the skin available to him from his angle until the skin darkened into a pretty hickey.

“Impa will never let me hear the end of it if she sees that,” the Princess said, and suddenly the boy below her froze up.

He groaned loudly, letting his forehead fall against her shoulder, his hands slipping out from under her shirt. _Why in Hylia would you say her name while I am…_

Zelda giggled apologetically, taking advantage of her new freedom to climb out of the chair momentarily in order to spin around and settle herself back into his lap. “Sorry,” she whispered as she leaned in close to his face. “Will this make it up to you?”

Her hands, braced on his shoulders, dragged down the plains of his broad chest, her fingertips dipping into every line of muscle definition as they cascaded downwards to settle at his belt. Link’s hands found themselves cupping her cheek and fisting into her hair as he kissed her squarely on the lips. She was more than happy to allow his tongue entrance as she began unclasping his belt buckle, savoring the small sound that rumbled in his chest when she ran her hand against his semi-hard length through his trousers.

The grip on her hair loosened, and she felt him run his hand down her spine to settle at the small of her back, tugging at the loose tunic weakly. Zelda pulled back, trying to get rid of the garment, but he was quick to beat her to it, and immediately planted his mouth on her sternum as soon as the clothing was lifted away, his hand coming to pull her against him against her back.

She let out a throaty moan at his attention, beginning to feel dizzy as her blood rushed through her ears. She was straddling her knight, so it only took a few short thrusts of her hips against him to get their clothed sexes to rub against each other, and they both took a pause to relish in the pleasant feeling.

The Princess clawed at her own belt now, hurriedly stripping it from her form before scooting off of him for a few seconds to shed her boots and pants. Link followed quick suit, but gathered her into his arms before she could push him back down onto the armchair. They stumbled backward until they hit the wall next to the front door (Link made sure her head didn’t hit it), and the Champion stripped his gloves off as he pressed against her. Zelda moaned, her legs shaking with arousal as she felt a droplet of her own lubrication slide slowly down the inside of her thigh.

“Need you,” she whispered between fervent kisses, feeling the epic shudder that wracked her knight’s body as she did. His hands seemed to be at a loss for where to go - they were everywhere at once. One was buried in her hair again, then cupping her cheek, then sliding down her body to rest at her hip. The other fisted itself in her breast, cupping and squeezing gently that ripped tiny gasps from the girl that, in actuality, robbed her of all of her oxygen. 

He groaned when her own palm found his shaft, dropping his head to her shoulder as he thrust shallowly into it. She marveled at how riled up he had gotten so quickly, and wondered just what the trigger had been. He had insisted it wasn’t the book, so maybe it had just been the way she had been sitting? 

Whatever it was, she didn’t particularly care. Because his reaction had most definitely affected her in a similar fashion, and the impatience she felt scared her a little. But even more than that, it was exciting.

She pulled on him a few times, whispering mindless words of encouragement into his ear as she twisted her palm against him, and Link moaned deep in his throat. At her attention, the ceaseless wandering of his hands had halted, and it seemed as if he were frozen in place except for the jutting motion of his hips as he stutteringly jerked into her grasp.

His breathing was labored, and Zelda felt like she wanted to watch him come undone like this. He really did look rather pretty right now, leaning heavily against her as if he might fall if he didn’t, panting into her shoulder, and holding her tightly in his grip as if she belonged to him. Which, really, she couldn’t argue against.

“You are so close,” she murmured, answering his shivering with a small moan of her own as he pitched into her grasp again. “Just a little more, right?”

Something in the knight clicked in that moment, and suddenly his hands grabbed at her thighs. She squeaked, letting go of his length for fear she might accidentally hurt him in her shock as he hoisted her up against the wall. 

“L-Link,” she cried, wrapping her legs around his waist instinctively when she felt her back slip against the surface behind her. As she did, his leaking member slid against her soft folds, and both of them let out broken sounds.

The Champion’s eyes were dark, clouded, but not enough that the Princess couldn’t see the admiration deep within them as he rocked backwards and forwards carefully. He let go of one of her legs and brought it up between them, proving to her that he still had enough mental capacity to speak as he signed one-handedly, _Can I?_

His question was emphasised by another shallow rocking of their hips, and the Princess allowed her head to fall back against the wall as she let out another small moan.

“Please,” she begged, pleading with him with not only her voice, but also her gaze that he held so fiercely. 

He moaned deeply, dropping his head to her sternum now as he held her tightly. He thrust a few more times, sending spikes of pleasure coursing through both of their systems before his tip finally caught on her entrance, and he slipped inside.

The burn was extra uncomfortable this time, seeing as though they had forgone their typical preparation in favor of experiencing the overwhelming sensation of fullness and an unending vortex of heat and pleasure. Their position made it hard to control how far in he went when they finally connected, but she tapped against him repeatedly when he finally came to somewhat of a stop.

“Slowly,” she hissed, grimacing at the fiery explosion of sensation that accompanied his breach. 

Thankfully, Link’s brain was still half-on enough to comprehend, and he groaned brokenly as he nodded and began planting open-mouthed kisses against the center of her chest. There was a fine layer of sweat, now, that covered their skin, and the Princess could feel the grip of her legs around his waist slipping slowly. The wall, on the other hand, as well as Link’s hands on her thighs, was as steady as ever, so she signaled him to continue by digging her heels into his back.

It took only a minute or so before she was panting and seated fully on him. In this position, she could swear she was able to feel the pulsing heartbeat in his member as it throbbed within her, and it somewhat mirrored her own that seemed to hammer against her chest so violently she was afraid it might jump out.

Link began to thrust when her lips met his in a heated kiss, swallowing the noises that escaped their throats. The burn Zelda had experienced on his intrusion was mostly gone now, replaced entirely by a fire in her nerves that lit up every time he moved even slightly. With gravity to help the downwards motion, the Princess swore that with every thrust, Link scored a new record with how deep he hit, giving up on coherency as his tongue flooded her mouth. 

It was wild and animalistic even as slow as they were technically going. Her legs, still sore from her workout that afternoon, ached with every thrust, and she could tell by the straining in his biceps to keep her up that he would at least start to feel it after they were done. 

The coil, now a familiar tingling sensation to her, had been wound tightly even before Link had entered her, and she knew that this wasn’t going to last as long as it normally did. She was sure he felt the same way by the way his voice hitched before finding a higher octave, something she very much enjoyed listening to. 

She wasn’t sure what their plan was for climaxing against a wall, but even if there was one to begin with, this surely wouldn’t have been what she expected. As her keened, his name on her lips as she clamped down around the hot organ within her, Link’s knees almost buckled with the force of his own orgasm, barely able to pull himself out of her without dropping her. The stumble, however, caused their balance to tip, and Link cradled her head in his arms as he twisted them so he would hit the ground instead of her. 

It was strange, coming out of post-orgasmic bliss lying on the floor on top of her partner when she had remembered being against a wall before her vision had spotted out with the force of her pleasure. Not half as strange, though, as Link who had very much hit the back of his head against the floor with their tumble at the same time as he had met completion, sending his brain rather confusing signals as it registered a sharp pain as well as a sharper pleasure.

He grunted as he let the girl go, tensing his abs and pulling himself up into a sitting position as he gingerly rubbed the back of his head. 

Zelda must have realized what had happened a moment after she came back to, and she melted into giggles as she sat herself up as well.

 _This is not funny,_ he groused, his hands flying back up to his head with a grimace.

“It is a _little_ funny,” she argued, crawling carefully over to him to carefully undo his ponytail. He winced, and she gave him an apologetic look.

 _Are you okay?_ He signed.

“What in Hylia are you worrying about me for? You are the one who hit his head.”

 _Are you okay?_ He repeated, irritation trying and failing to replace the amused and fond expression he wore.

“I am fine, Sir Link,” she responded primly. “More than okay, actually. Positively fabulous.”

 _I should have moved us to the bed,_ he lamented, squirming as her fingers gently combed through his newly brushed hair and against his fresh bump.

“I thought it was exciting,” she admitted, flushing as it left her mouth. She didn’t look away, though, because she wanted him to know it was the truth. 

_Excitement kind of hurts._ He yelped when her fingers made direct contact with where his head hit the floor, and he cast an offended look her way.

“Sorry, sorry,” she laughed. “You are not bleeding, but do you have any ice?”

Link frowned before recognition flashed in his eyes, a devilish look that made the Princess feel like recoiling a little. 

“Oh, I do not think I will like what you have planned.”

 _It is fine, it is fine. Come on,_ he urged, launching himself into a standing position, wobbling slightly before grabbing their undergarments and tossing hers to her.

“This better not be anything harmful to property or nature,” she warned, grimacing at the mess she still had between her legs. “And I am not going anywhere like this. I need a towel or a rag or something.”

Link blushed before scrambling over to the hooks next to the bathhouse and grabbing one of the fresh towels. He wet it in the basin quickly, tossing it to her. The Princess caught it, surprising herself as she wiped herself clean before folding the cloth and pulling on her underwear.

He rushed over to where his belt fell, picking through the small pile of clothing before grabbing the Sheikah Slate, racing over to grab her hand, and run over to the basin.

“Link, what-” Zelda began, not getting any more used to the dragging and pulling. Before she could finish, though, Link began pressing a few buttons and tapping the Slate’s screen before selecting something with the symbol of a snowflake on it, and she recognized it immediately. Cryonis.

He held it up in front of him, taking a few steps away from the basin, then activated it. Zelda didn’t think that cryonis worked on such a small field, having only seen it come up as a giant block that was four times as thick and twice as tall as her entire body. A smaller pillar rose now, though, as if designed to fit into the space provided, and she took a moment to gawk at it.

“When did it get that ability?” She asked incredulously as Link broke off half of it, sighing with relief as he pressed it against the back of his head.

 _Purah sent a letter awhile ago saying that she had found out a way to upgrade the ability, so I paid her a visit on a day off a few weeks ago when you were still planning the coronation. I meant to tell you, but I guess I forgot,_ Link explained before picking the ice back up and pressing it against his head again.

“We need to pay her a visit before the end of this week,” Zelda sighed. “After Kakariko, of course.”

 _I dread the thought._ Link’s face was deadpan.

“Oh, do not be that way. Purah may be a little… extra enthusiastic in that younger form of herself, but it is only out of affection.”

He raised a brow, then huffed out a sigh of resignation.

She giggled, turning towards the stairs. “We should leave in the morning for Kakariko if we plan to make it there by lunch. That being said, I bid you goodnight.” She made a grand gesture with her hands in an exaggerated bow, and Link couldn’t help but chuckle as he tossed the small block of ice back into the basin. 

She rummaged through the drawers she had emptied her clothes into, pulling out her night robes and slipping them on. Link, having already thrown his shorts back on, didn’t bother clothing himself any further, and instead chucked himself onto the bed. The mattress gave with a great _whuff,_ and he scooted to the side to make room for his partner.

He settled on his side with her back tucked up against his chest as he circled his arms around her waist and breathed in the smell of her hair. 

“Comfortable?” Zelda teased quietly, amused by his great inhale.

He hummed, squeezing her against him before relaxing. Their legs tangled and his hand rested on her belly, and the Princess focused on the sound of his breathing as she concentrated on finding unconsciousness. 

To be honest, for as tired and sore as her body was, mentally she was awake as she ever had been. She was excited to go to Kakariko and see Impa again, even if it had only been a few weeks. Paya, too, would be a sight for sore eyes, and she couldn’t wait to reconnect with the only friend that was her age (well, if you didn’t count the one hundred years extra). 

After defeating Calamity Ganon, Kakariko was the first place they had gone, and in that time Zelda had made it her mission to become a normal, functioning human being once again. That was only possible by making a friend - a real one that didn’t have a monstrous appetite and always seemed to hit first and ask questions later. Someone who wasn’t directly involved in the politics, or better yet, someone who didn’t know she was royalty right off the bat. 

The truth was, it took a very long time to recover from the transition of having a physical body back. There had been several weeks where her brain would become so exhausted that she could barely stay awake for more than five hours at a time. Learning about everything that had happened to her kingdom in the years that she was gone was also frightening. The stables, once places of massive gathering, were now small settlements that looked as if they were constructed in order to be ripped down and rebuilt again within a day. There were scarcely more than five people there at one time, excluding the staff.

When they had traveled to Hateno Village to give the good news to Purah, her heart had swelled at the fact that the settlement had gone almost untouched. Of course, the people were suffering from bokoblin attacks out on the roads, but that had always been the norm, really. What made up the town itself - its shops, houses, buildings - had gone unscathed, and it had been a safe haven and a beacon of hope for her. 

Of course, several things _had_ changed. Like Tarrey Town, for example. When they had visited upon Link’s request on their way to tell Robbie of their victory, they had stopped by for the day, and Zelda had been almost taken aback by the sheer diversity of people that roamed through it. It was one of the only central towns that seemed to have several people of different races living together, and even though it was strange to her how insistent everyone was on the superiority of having “son” as the last three letters of one’s name, it was a lovely place. It greatly reminded her of Gerudo Village - the only other place she had seen all the races interacting together. 

Gerudo had been an odd place for them to stop by on their parade through Hyrule to share the news - notable only because Link had not accompanied her within the walls. When she spoke with Lady Riju, and the girl had described how Zelda’s knight had gotten within the walls, she wondered why exactly he hadn’t joined her, but when she left she didn’t bother asking why. The Gerudo had thrown them a small party in her honor, and she had left the city walls to find him staring up at the dark sky in his Voe armor and a shall over his shoulders to chase away the chill that came with the desert nights. She remembered staring at him in that outfit quite a lot while they had been there, and had almost let her tongue slip out a protest when they finally got far enough out of the heat for him to adorn his Champion’s Tunic.

Rito Village and Zora’s Domain offered them a similar celebration, but the Gorons were less congratulatory for the sole reason that they were set on fixing their mines that Vah Rudania had damaged. They didn’t end up spending that much time on Death Mountain. It was also uncomfortably hot, so it wasn’t any skin off their noses. If she concentrated, she could still taste the bitter essence of the countless fireproof elixirs they had used, and she vividly remembered the stinging stench of smoke filling her nostrils.

Thankfully, though, there was a much more pleasant scent surrounding her now - something that was a mixture of wind, leather, salt, and metal, and it completely engulfed her. She sighed heavenly, snuggling back into the solid body behind her, drinking in the sound of his steady breaths. She wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep or how long she had been laying there, but Link had long succumbed to unconsciousness, and as she felt the rhythmic puffs of his warm breath against the back of her head, she too allowed herself to fall into a deep slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first time I heard the phrase, "The key to a woman's heart is her stomach," I wasn't able to fully grasp its meaning. When I finally understood, though, I thought it was infinitely funny. For a year or so I used it whenever I could, and all my friends were so annoyed with it lol.


	11. On the Precipice of Forgiveness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, I almost forgot to post this. Next chapter will be released on Oct. 22, 2020.

Zelda woke to a gentle shaking, but as much as she tried to resist the rouse, the movement only became more insistent. Finally, her eyes cracked open, and she met a sea of blue. Link smiled down at her, kissing her on the forehead, and she hummed contentedly.

“Good morning,” she mumbled, sleep heavy in her voice.

 _We should go,_ he signed, crawling off the side of the bed with an outfit outstretched in his hand. He was already dressed in his hylian outfit, and she assumed that she was going to wear something similar. Her normal clothes were a bit too recognizable, as was his blue tunic, so it made sense that he had picked something harder to distinguish.

“What time is it?” She yawned, sitting up and stretching her arms over her head.

Her knight pointed the Sheikah Slate at her, and it blinked 5 AM at her. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when he raised his hands. _I will get the horses ready while you get changed. There are rice balls if you would like something to eat, but it would be best if we ate as we rode._

Rice balls? How long had he been up? She saw bags under his eyes, though, and by the restless look in his eyes, she thought it best that she didn’t ask. At least not yet. Instead, the Princess only nodded, and he left another kiss on her forehead before he clambered down the stairs and out the door.

She quickly threw her satchel together, throwing it around her shoulder after pulling on her clothes. Zelda snagged the key to the house on her way out, giving the door a firm tug shut as she left and dragged her feet over to the makeshift stables. Sure enough, Link had both horses ready, and when she approached, he handed her Galen’s reins.

 _I know that you love Storm,_ he began, _but I think it best to heed Reede’s warning. Until we return to the castle, it is probably best I ride him._

“It is probably for the best,” Zelda sighed, gladly accepting his offer to help her into the saddle with an outstretched hand. She landed in the saddle a little harder than she probably should have, but unlike Storm, the bay beneath her barely flinched. 

Link attached a few more saddlebags to both animals before swinging up onto Storm’s back, but paused before walking forward. He leaned over and dug out her cloak, craning his body over to hand it to her. 

“Thank you,” she mumbled, still feeling sleep weigh against her eyelids.

He smiled softly, then cued the white stallion forward, and suddenly they were off. The streets of Hateno Village were unsurprisingly empty at this hour, and the sun had only just started to peek over the horizon, casting a yellowish hue mostly marred by shadows across the lush hills. They took the road eastward at a brisk trot, a fog in the air ahead of them that obscured their view. It didn’t worry them, though, because they had traveled these roads far too often not to be familiar with the landmarks and twists. Besides, for the most part the horses stuck to the path, and only required an occasional correction when they got distracted by some low-hanging tree branches.

The Champion once again dug through a saddlebag, keeping one eye on the road ahead of him while he pulled out a few rice balls wrapped in parchment. They slowed to a walk for a moment so he could give her her share, and had to refocus the testy stallion beneath him when the crinkling paper stole his attention. Zelda giggled.

“When you tamed Storm, did he give you much trouble?” She asked, keeping one hand on her reins as she bit into her rice ball.

Link held his own food between his teeth as he signed around the reins, _He gave me quite a lot more trouble then, if you can believe it._

“And here I thought you were ‘a stableboy through and through,’” the Princess teased.

He chuckled dryly. _Storm is young, so there is still time to correct his misbehaviors._

“How do you know he is young?”

 _His teeth,_ he signed simply, elaborating no further.

She waited for a response that never came, then prompted, “His teeth?”

_The younger the horse, the straighter up and down their teeth are. The older the horse, the more of an acute angle they form._

“The more you know,” she hummed, shocked he knew so much about these things. “You know, when we were sheltering from that rainstorm and I asked you what you might have become if you had not decided to follow in your father’s footsteps, I would have guessed you would have been an actual horseman of some kind. Like Stableman Bario, for example.”

Link shuddered at the mention of the senile senior stableman from the royal stable. _He is wise,_ he signed, _but he is much too old for his job._

“Oh, stop it. He is fine. Happy as a clam, too, and if that keeps him from nagging at me not to ride off-road, then I am more than content to let him keep his position.”

_We barely ride off-road._

“I know, but he still reminds us. Or, he reminds me, at least.”

Link hummed, ducking under a branch as he passed under it. 

As Zelda took the last bite from her rice ball, she licked her lips, feeling a little more awake now that she had food in her belly. It hadn’t missed her that it seemed as if Link was in somewhat of a mood, but she was sure that it was just his apparent lack of sleep. It was strange, though, because she knew that he was capable of being incredibly stealthy when he wanted to, but she would have thought that she would have woken up when he had gotten out of bed that morning. They hadn’t gone to bed very early, and since he had managed to have time to make food and get himself ready before waking her at five in the morning, she wondered just how much sleep he actually got.

“Thank you for breakfast,” she said, trying to break the silence. “It was delicious.”

He smiled at her tiredly. _I am glad you liked it, Zelda._

Yeah, something was up. Obviously he wasn’t the most talkative person in the world (the least, actually, if you counted how he almost never used his voice), but these close-lipped and curt responses seemed downright antisocial.

“So,” she tried again, “you must have been up early to make those.”

He stiffened in his saddle, then almost apologetically signed, _Did I wake you?_

She threw her hands up, waving them quickly. “No, no, I was just- I was not sure how much sleep you got. Seeing as though we went to bed late, got up early, and you still had food prepared before that.”

Link hesitated for a moment. _I just could not sleep for a little while is all. I got at least three hours though, so you need not worry._

Zelda eyed him suspiciously. “You were asleep before I was.” When he didn’t reply, she sighed. “Is everything alright? You seem… jittery.”

_All is well. I just wanted to be ready to leave this morning, and that is why I woke when I did. I guess I am just nervous about going to Kakariko again._

She knew exactly why. “Because of what happened with Paya?” The Princess tested quietly, careful not to overstep the boundaries he had set up.

He looked down at his hands, as if deciding what to say, but instead closed them into fists around the reins and simply nodded. 

“I have never known Paya to hold a grudge,” Zelda said, doing her best to sound reassuring. “I doubt she will start now.”

The knight sucked in air sharply, letting it go in a prolonged sigh before smiling at her softly. _I hope you are right,_ he signed.

“I will be,” she assured him, returning his grin. “Now, come on. We still have a few hours to go.”

It was seven in the morning when they passed through the walls at Fort Hateno, and Zelda did her best to ignore the way Link tensed as they rode along the path that led around the Ash Swamp. She caught herself glaring at the decayed Guardians, a protective and defensive part of her daring one of them to whir to life. _Try it,_ the voice said. Of course, the machines had fallen victim to time and to a certain glowing sword long ago, and none of them moved.

They stopped at the Dueling Peaks stable, waving hello to Beedle who happened to be there. Link bought twenty arrows from the excited man, hushing him as he began drawing attention.

“Ah! My apologies! I didn’t realize you were undercover,” the enthusiastic merchant giggled in his raspy, high-pitched voice. “It is good to see you again, though, Your Highness,” He added in an exaggerated whisper, cupping his hand against the side of his mouth as if that helped. The toothy smile that split his feature was contagious, and Zelda couldn’t help but reflect it.

“Good to see you as well, Beedle,” she replied.

Much to the merchant’s dismay, the two didn’t stay long, and waved him off as they fetched their horses drinking from the pool of water around the Ha Dahamar Shrine. With an excited farewell and a swinging wave of Beedle’s arm that had him wobbling off-balance, the two carried on for the final half of their journey across the Kakariko Bridge to the north.

Link explained how he had met Hestu for the first time along the very path they climbed now as they ascended the steep path just past the bridge.

“Maracas?” She asked incredulously. “They play instruments?”

He only shrugged. _I am not sure they are meant for musical numbers like you may think. His maracas are actually how he enchanted my satchel, so even now I still keep an eye out for seeds to take to him._

“What a strange civilization the koroks have,” the Princess hummed.

 _Yeah._ The knight laughed breathily. _Their coming of age rituals are equally as strange._

“Oh, right! You told me about their trials, but you never mentioned what made up said trials.”

 _Oh, they were awful,_ he recounted with dread in his eyes. _One had me clad in nothing but their weaponry to fight through a swampy area. If any of my weapons broke, I had to restart. They weren’t strong enemies, but there were a lot of them. I tried to just burn through it, but when I got to the mud pits I wasn’t sure if I could keep doing that. It took me four tries._

The Princess joined in his amusement, unable to picture Link running from any battle. “What about the others?” She giggled.

 _One of them was just finding my way through the mist of the forest, and I had to find my way by following the wind and the directions the embers of my torch flew. The last one though… the last one was the worst._

“Oh, do tell.”

Link had to take a second to scrub at his face at the memory, then with a deadpan expression signed, _I had to follow this other trial-goer through even more woods. The trial itself was to find the shrine, kind of like the other, but instead of doing it properly, I was following another korok at the request of his… father? Relative. Someone._

“What made that so bad?”

_Well, it would not have been that bad if he wanted to be followed, or if he did not restart every time my cover got blown because he backtracked or meandered so much._

“Why were you hiding from him?”

_The person who sent me after him asked that I not let him see me because the trial-goer wanted to be able to do it himself, but his friend was worried for him, so he asked that I use stealth. Anyway, it took far too many attempts. I stayed in that forest for another three days trying to finish that. When I finally came back to the center, by the Deku Tree, the elder told me that if I wanted to repeat any trials, I was more than allowed to, but I thought I would rather die, so I left the forest right after._

The Princess was cackling now, and Link tugged on his earring out of embarrassment. 

_At least I got the sword!_ He defended quickly, gesturing to the weapon that clattered against his back with every trotting step of the stallion beneath him. _And three spirit orbs. Not sure how worth it those were, though._

“Hylia, you are so dramatic!” She cried. “That poor little korok. You ought to have let him finish that trial on his own. That is the point of the trials, is it not?”

 _He would have been that wolf’s dinner if I had not been there,_ Link gestured. _I regret nothing._

“Ever the hero,” Zelda giggled.

The rest of their ride was less tense than it had started out, and Zelda was thankful for that. As they reached the gated archways of Kakariko, they were greeted by an old woman by a fire who lit up with a warm smile upon seeing them.

“Master Link, you have returned,” she rasped, craning her neck up to the mounted knight.

Link smiled back, reaching into his satchel to pull out his notepad and pen. _How have you been?_

“The valley has been at peace thanks to you and the Princess’s efforts,” she said, turning to Zelda and bowing as deeply as her frail body would allow. 

The royal girl sighed. She didn’t really expect the outfit and horse switch to do much in their favor, but it had done its job getting them there, at least. Link, she supposed, after having helped so many people in Hyrule, must be a known face, so it wasn’t fully a surprise that their stealth hadn’t lasted long. Even so, she thanked the old woman, but tugged the hood she wore over her head.

It was eleven now, and the sun was almost right above their heads. There was a wind tunnel that seemed to blow violent gusts through the narrow path within the crevice between Bonooru’s Stand and the Pillars of Levia, and it chilled their skin as they marched through it. There was respite, however, as they came into view of Kakariko Village’s entirety, and they smiled at the familiar sight. 

It was ridiculous how fast they were recognized, and the Princess felt silly she had ever thought they would be able to go anywhere without. Link quelled the excitement, though, with rushed hushes, shooing the gathering crowd as best he could. They had barely even passed the clothing store before two little girls came rushing up to grab onto each of the knight’s legs once they had dismounted their horses.

Zelda chuckled, getting heavy deja vu from every other child’s reaction to seeing the hero, but Link only scrubbed his hands over his face.

“You came, you came!” Cottla cheered. “It’s been so long since we could play tag! How come you didn’t visit sooner?”

With his pen in his hand, he quickly wrote on his piece of paper. _We have been working to restore the castle._

“But you’re back, right? Right? You can play, now, right?”

“He can!” Zelda said, crouching down to their eye-level. “You better start running, though. He is quite fast.”

Koko and Cottla both detached from the man, squealing as they took off. Link shot her an apologetic look, handing the horses’ reins off to the village’s stableman who had come to see what the commotion was about before taking off after the children. Zelda watched with mirth in her eyes, unable to stop the smile spreading across her cheeks. 

She turned to Impa’s house which stood on top of the long flight of stairs just below the falls of the cliffs behind it, and she saw the elder standing on her porch looking right back at her. Paya stood next to her grandmother, but her posture was shrunk back.

Cottla raced by, and Link skidded to a stop in front of the Princess. He smiled at her, then followed her gaze to the village head’s house. His gaze fell on the young woman, and his face fell a little. Paya fled inside despite her grandmother’s efforts to stop her, and the knight’s face twisted with guilt.

“Go on,” Zelda encouraged, bumping his shoulder.

The Champion looked at her, then back at Koko and Cottla who stood a little ways away, curious as to why he stopped. He waved at them briefly, signaling that he had to take care of something and that the game had to temporarily be put on pause before he jogged towards the tall staircase. He took them two at a time, and Zelda began walking herself towards the house’s entrance guarded by Cado and Dorian who both bowed as she passed. Link spoke briefly with Impa, who directed him towards the door, leaving him with a few words that the Princess couldn’t hear.

As the door slid shut behind him and her knight disappeared into the building, Impa turned to Zelda, now halfway up the steps, and smiled. “What a surprise, Princess. We did not expect to see you here.”

“Reede said the same thing,” Zelda said, bowing respectfully to the old woman. “Before you ask, I can assure you that all preparations for the coronation have been made. We arrived in Hateno Village two days ago, and plan on leaving for Gerudo Village to deal with the Yiga Clan the following week. We just wanted to come say hello since we happened to be so nearby.”

“Well, we are happy to have you here. I am impressed you managed to plan an entire coronation within just a few weeks of returning from Zora’s Domain.” Impa’s face wrinkled as she spoke, the warmth in her eyes a deep comfort.

“I assure you I spared no detail. It will be as magnificent as you expect it to be,” the Princess promised. 

“You will never disappoint me, Your Highness,” Impa assured, waving her to follow as she shuffled to turn around. “Come and have some tea while you wait for your knight to return.”

Zelda sighed, following close behind her. “I do hope he gets the chance to apologize.”

“I doubt they will have any problems.”

Link was not, however, getting the chance to apologize. In fact, he was sitting in front of a locked door currently, cross-legged and irritated. She had fled the moment she saw him, locking herself away in her room before he had the chance to say anything. Part of him knew that running after a fleeing animal after scaring it would do nothing more than make her want to run even more, but the other part of him desperately wanted to apologize and explain to her what had happened. He ducked his head, scratching furiously at his hair frustratedly. 

Paya had always been a little difficult to talk to. He had always known she had been attracted to him from the moment they met, but he did his best not to make it awkward when he turned her down after she confessed to him a month after Calamity Ganon’s defeat. It had been a bad time - the Princess had been working on gathering a meeting between all the leaders to collectively put in efforts towards the restoration of Hyrule, and Link had been so busy with keeping her anxieties under control that it had caught him completely off guard when Paya pulled him to the side.

It was rushed, and full of stutters, but he had let her down as gently as he could, and he thought he had done a good job, because she didn’t run away or cry to his knowledge. In fact, she had left with a smile knowing that they would still be friends, albeit a little discouraged in her posture. 

At that time, there had been no time for romance. Even though there had been an undeniable force that naturally drew the Champion towards the Princess, he did his best to reject those feelings, passing them off as something that his past life had, and not something that he presently did at the time. So when Paya poured out her feelings to him, it was like the feeling of water passing you by when you swam in a river: something you didn’t pay much mind to. He felt bad for a long time about amounting her feelings to something as insignificant as that, but it wasn’t his intention to lead her on when the love she felt simply wasn’t reciprocated. 

It seemed cruel to treat her any differently after that, so he just… didn’t. He left with the Princess at his side as he always did, and he hoped that someday Paya would lose her affections. Because really, what else could he do?

Then he had returned to Kakariko some months later after requesting a week off from his duties. It was after weeks and weeks of consecutive nightmares that he realized something was wrong, and knew that if he was going to be able to effectively protect his charge, he would need to figure out how to fix the incessant night terrors. They were costing him sleep, which cost his focus, and cost him a scratch on Zelda that could have been prevented. So he had asked her not to leave her base of operations for the week while he was gone, and he had left as soon as he was granted permission. 

At first he didn’t know where exactly he was headed. Galen was left behind in favor of using the Sheikah Slate to get as far away as he could as soon as possible, but even after traveling around all of Hyrule within a day, trying to decide where would be the safest to stay, he had landed in Kakariko Village. Impa had been gracious enough to open her home to him, and he gratefully accepted her offer. The days he spent there were not ones he wished to relive. Every day he would go somewhere else, promising himself that he wouldn’t return to Impa’s house that night, but always seemed to anyway. 

Each morning he would strap his sword to his back, he would trudge out of bed with heavy bags under his eyes, and he would travel someplace new. The first day it was just to the Dueling Peaks Tower, wiping out small bokoblin camps to blow off steam. It felt right, almost, making the roads a safer place for travelers, and he knew just where the outposts were from his own travels before they had defeated Calamity Ganon. But as he cleared camp after camp, something insatiable gnawed at his chest. The next day it was moblin camps, the next lizalfos, and by the fourth day it was lynels. It felt good as his sword sunk into soft flesh, and the splash of blood that followed was addictive. As he stood over the lion-horse hybrid of a beast, he cursed himself for enjoying this. 

But he couldn’t stop either.

He had been _angry._ Angry that nothing had changed since defeating Calamity Ganon; angry that none of his other memories had been recovered; angry that this incessant pull of the Princess was all he wanted to abide when he had barely truly known her for the past three months. So he kept doing it. Most nights he would return to Impa’s house well past midnight, but only once did he finally get a grip on himself and come back at a reasonable hour.

He had visited the Lanayru Promenade once again, hoping beyond hope that something - _anything_ \- would come back to him upon revisiting the first recovered memory location, and in his frustration he had missed a slash of his sword on the nearby lynel, and had taken a hard blow to his shoulder. That was the only creature he had spared, and the last time he had turned tail and ran for the next few months.

Upon entering the head’s home again, it was only seven in the evening, and he had been treated to a warm meal. He had crashed in his bed after that, holding back angry tears that tasted of concealed despair. When his body finally gave in and slept, it was only to be awakened by another cruel nightmare. This one was more vivid than the rest, and he woke in a cold sweat with a shout.

That was all it had taken for Paya, sleeping in the room next door, to wake and come crashing into his room with a concern only she could emanate. But, still caught in the adrenaline of his nightmare, he had stopped thinking rationally about the fact that he wasn’t being tormented by his inner fears anymore, and snatched the Master Sword on the ground beside him. It was only after she shrieked, fleeing his room that Link had realized where he was, and he dropped the blade quickly.

It was too late, though. The damage had been done. Instead of facing up to it, he had taken the coward’s way out, and left. 

So now, here he sat, three years too late outside of her door, clutching the same sword he had drawn on her all that time ago. The faceless terror his mind had conjured that night still haunted him some nights, but he had learned to control himself after all this time, and it wasn’t often that it affected him like it used to.

He sighed, rapping the back of his hand against the door once more, a lump in his throat when there was again no response.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting there. Wasn’t sure how long he would keep sitting there. However long it would take, he supposed, would be the right answer. After all, he couldn’t clear the guilt that weighed his conscience without apologizing. 

Fifteen minutes passed and again he knocked. 

Twenty minutes passed and again he knocked.

Hours passed, and when his knock was met with silence, his patience had worn thin. The Sheikah Slate read five in the afternoon, and he could hear the bustling sounds of Impa and his charge preparing dinner below. With a heavy sigh, he lifted himself from where he sat, stretching out his stiff limbs. If she was going to ignore him for the rest of the day, the least he could do was go and bring her something to eat to leave outside of her door. 

It was when he started to turn, his boots resolutely hitting the floorboards that he heard the door unlock. His ears twitched, and he whipped around, only to be met with the red, wet face of the young Sheikah woman. Her lip trembled, and his heart fell, his hands feeling useless and heavy at his sides.

“Well,” Paya burst, so loudly that it startled the knight back a few steps. He had never heard her raise her voice like that. “It’s about time!”

Guilt twisted his brow as his eyes fell to the floor. _I-_ he started, but his hands shook too violently to form anything coherent. He bit his lip in frustration, willed his limbs to still, then continued. _I waited too long._

“You’re damn right you did,” she hissed, using the door as if it were a barrier to protect herself.

 _It-It was not you,_ he started lamely, emotion overtaking his face as he grit his teeth.

Paya stared back at him, her face one of confusion and deeply rooted pain. “What?”

 _I did not try to brandish my sword to you,_ he tried again. _It was… something I had dreamt. And I could not tell reality from what I had seen, and you startled me, and I know that I should not have reached for my sword, and I know that I scared you, and I am so, so, so sorry._ His words were messy and disorganized, his sentence running on and on as a dam seemed to burst within him. _I did not come back because I was afraid that you would hate me, and I know that I deserve it, but I- I just need you to know that it was not you. I would never, ever hurt you._

Paya was taken aback by his outburst, shying behind half of the door. “You waited t-three years.”

 _I did,_ Link signed.

“You left right after w-without so much of a single word of apology.”

_I did._

“You ran away.”

_I did._

“You-” she cut herself off, and the Champion watched as tears gathered in her eyes. “You didn’t even say g-goodbye.”

His eyes widened as she threw her door open and rushed into his arms, capturing him in a hug.

“You didn’t even say goodbye…” she whispered, clutching him tighter. 

Link’s heart squeezed, and he fiercely returned the embrace. He pulled apart a moment later in order to frantically raise his hands. He only said two phrases, each varying equally as he switched back and forth as if undecided which she needed to hear more. _I am sorry. It was not you._

Paya wiped away a tear, lowering her head. “I know,” she said as many times as he signed. “I know.”

The Champion recovered quickly, giving himself time to explain fully what had happened as Paya watched intently with a raw sort of sadness in her brown eyes. When he was finished explaining, they shared another hug, but the smell of food was becoming a little too hard to ignore. Eventually, they headed downstairs, almost crashing into Zelda on her way up with two plates in her hands. When Link looked into the sea green of her eyes, he found a conflicted emotion that he couldn’t quite name, but more than that he found relief and pride.

“Are you two hungry?” She asked them. “There is stuffed pumpkin for supper, if you would join us.”

When everyone gathered around the table, Impa could not have looked more pleased. “All my children are present,” she had said with a wrinkly smile. “You have blessed this old woman with great happiness.”

Paya mumbled something about being her granddaughter, but that only got a few chuckles around the table. Zelda held Link’s hand in her own by where they sat, and she felt a childish giddiness at the action. His face had lost its intensity, she observed contentedly. In fact, he appeared rather relaxed right now, and she smiled.

Impa recounted stories as they all settled back to digest their meals, steaming cups of hot milk in their hands. They laughed, gathered around the fireplace that Link had lit half an hour earlier, and Zelda felt as if no other place could be considered as much of a home as this one did.

The Princess sat next to her knight as they wound down from dinner, leaning somewhat against him as the hours passed. It occurred to her that they had neglected to collect any of the herbs they needed for the elixir, and she mentioned it lowly when Paya and Impa seemed to be paying attention to other things.It was amusing, watching his face heat up as he recalled just what they were for, but he quickly signed an acknowledgement, and the subject was dropped. 

An hour later and the sun had dipped below the horizon, and Zelda and Link were at the front door of Impa’s house. The old woman saw them off with a smile, but Paya was nowhere to be seen. Impa insisted they be off, though.

“Are you sure you would rather stay in the inn, Princess? I have accommodations for you both if you would like,” the village head said with a smile.

“We will be just fine, but thank you so much for your offer and your hospitality,” Zelda thanked her graciously. “The inn was lovely last time, and I have no doubt it will be just as lovely this time.”

Impa hummed knowingly, but said nothing as the two turned around and began their descent down the stairs. Besides the roar of the waterfall and the chirps from the restless crickets, all was quiet. As they passed Dorian and Cado, Link passed an apology to the latter, promising him that he would tire out his girls the following day. Cado, laughing, accepted his offer gratefully, a tired look in his eye.

“Even though they’re older now, they still have just as much energy,” the Sheikah guard joked, twisting a few of the strands of his beard in between his thumb and forefinger.

With a quick goodbye to the two security details, they followed the path through the village towards the inn. Zelda, mesmerized by the sheer quantity of fireflies that filled the air, swiped her hand through it, cupping a few in her hands. She excitedly showed them to Link, whose face the bugs all swarmed when she released them in front of him, and she giggled as he shook his head after one had landed on his nose.

The tired innkeeper still sat behind the desk, asking them a standard set of questions about what type of room they would like, if they would like to be woken up at a certain time, and what types of beds they would prefer in a tone of voice that only customer service workers could use and perfect the way this one had. Zelda did her best to spare them any more grief than she could help, and a key was dropped into her hand a moment later. The suite was what they ended up staying in, a room with a window that faced outward into the village and an ensuite washroom. The bed was large, and took up half of the space, barely enough room for the small coffee table surrounded by sitting cushions just next to it.

Link, after having picked the Princess up onto his back when she had been slow on the stairs, dropped her playfully onto the plush mattress in the middle of the room, savoring the giggle she let out.He threw himself down next to her, quick to turn onto his side and gather her into his arms.

“You seem like you are doing much better,” she observed as he inhaled the scent of her neck.

 _I think so,_ he signed, a difficult task considering she was right next to him and he was on his side.

She hummed, the weight of his body soothing her. He ran his hands up and down her arms in a calming way, and she allowed her eyes to drift shut as he did. When she did, though, she was hit with a realization.

“You smell like horse,” Zelda said, crinkling her nose and opening her eyes to look at him.

Link looked at her with an unimpressed expression. _That happens when you ride for five hours._

“Bath,” she said simply, and he groaned, shoving his face into her shoulder. She laughed. “Bath!” she tried again.

He groaned, much like a child being forced to eat his vegetables, but he submitted to the push against his shoulders, and he rolled off of her. She sat up on her elbows as he scratched the back of his head, pulling out the band that held his ponytail up. The Princess watched as his hair fell to just below his shoulders, messy and tangled from all the activity that day. She recalled how straight it had been after brushing it and working hair oil into it the other day, and she suddenly got the urge to do it again.

“You should try braiding it sometime,” she suggested, drawing his attention back to her as he stood up.

He smiled sheepishly, then said, _I do not know how._

Her jaw dropped. “You do not know how to braid? Even the normal kind of braid?”

_Is there a ‘normal’ kind of braid?_

“Yes! The simplest kind - the three free strands. You really do not know how?”

He shook his head, huffing out a laugh as he grabbed at the hem of his tunic and undershirt and pulled them over his head. Zelda did her best not to stare too openly at the scarred skin revealed to her as he did this. No, he signed. 

“I will teach you how,” she offered. “Come morning, you will be an expert.”

 _Apparently a bath is in order first._ She pouted at his reaction before he leaned down to cup her face and place a kiss on her forehead. _You also smell like horse,_ by the way. Her face mirrored his previous offense, and he chuckled. _Do you want the first bath then?_

She chewed her lip for a moment. “We could always just save time and take one together?” It came out more like a question than a suggestion, but she liked the way his head dropped into a breathy laugh.

 _I will wash your back,_ he said before picking up his discarded shirts and folding them. When she stood and began undressing herself as well, he turned respectfully as he always did, and a few moments later they were both heading into the washroom. It was a little strange, really, when Link held open the door for her with unmatched chivalry when they were both in the nude, but she could only pass it off with a giggle as she rushed inside. 

They were disappointed to find that the water had run lukewarm, no doubt been sitting there without being reheated since the last time services came through the room. The Champion ducked back out into the main room, though, and Zelda heard a metallic scraping sound. When he came back in she dreaded to see him with a Great Flameblade in his hand.

“You are not serious, right?” She laughed as he gestured her back a few steps away from the buckets of water.

He tossed her a side glance, and he grinned wildly as he stuck the blade into the water as the magic activated, and the room erupted into steam. The humidity shot up quickly, and the Princess coughed through fits of laughter. 

“I think the Gorons would be upset knowing you use such a sacred blade in this way so often.”

He shrugged, waving some of the condensation from his face. They both pulled stools up, and much like when she was changing, Link turned around. Zelda took this opportunity to take one of the buckets of now warm water and spill its contents onto his head, amused at the surprised yelp he let out.

“It is just a little water, you fraidy-cat. Loosen up a little,” she said, making sure all of his hair was soaked through. The Champion huffed, keeping his eyes glued to the wall facing away from her. She grabbed at some of the soap and body oil resting on one of the shelves before gently beginning to run her palms up the muscles of his back. He was tense under her touch, and she did her best to release as much of that as she could by digging her thumbs into the knots. 

The tips of his ears, poking out to the side, were dusted with blush, and she found it silly how they were still so bashful around each other sometimes. As she tangled her fingers into the unruly dirty blond locks, though, her fingers scratching gently against his scalp as she worked the soap into them, some of his tension left, and he leaned his head back into her touch.

“How did it go with Paya?” She asked after he seemed a little more relaxed in her touch.

 _She heard me out,_ he signed.

“And she forgave you?” Her voice was just barely above a whisper, and she took another one of the buckets to the side to tip some of the water over the lathered blond hair.

 _I do not know. She hugged me afterwards, so maybe. It seemed like she was more upset that I had neglected to say goodbye before I took off._ His ears drooped a little, and his back flexed with how he crossed his legs.

“That is good, is it not?” Zelda said, biting back the ridiculous flare of jealousy that flashed within her. 

_I do not know. I feel like she is upset at the wrong thing._

Her hands smoothed down his back, tracing the lines of pink scar tissue in her wake with soapy skin. It was rough under her touch, and she couldn’t help but stare at it. “She is allowed to choose what hurt her most from that transaction,” she explained softly, keeping her tones as soothing as she could. “You must trust her to decide what she needed to remedy that, and I think that if she, nervous little Paya, hugged you afterwards, then surely she found that as apology enough.”

Link hummed, his eyes drifting closed as she worked the soap into his skin. After a moment of silence, he lifted his hands. _Your turn?_

Zelda laughed, but bared her back to him as he turned around, heat leaping to her cheeks as she was reminded how bare she was to him. Link spent the next few moments refilling some of the empty buckets from the small basin nearby, and moving the Great Flameblade into one of them as he took the last full container from the corner. 

The moment his calloused fingers met the soft skin of her back, she let out a deep breath she didn’t realize she was holding. It was just as intense as it always was, but it felt different that there was no passion behind the sweeping motion of his fingers. They were exploratory, but in a completely innocent way, as if he was trying to memorize the map of her back. He worked them up to her neck, where he kneaded his fingers into where her spine met the back of her head, and she hummed contentedly at his ministrations. Water was gently spilled over her head, and she tipped it back to prevent it from falling into her face.

He mimicked her earlier motions by slowly working soap into her hair, and she melted back the same he had into his skillful fingers. They were quiet through this except for her occasional encouraging hum, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to see his hands like this when he was behind her. 

When he was satisfied with her hair, he swept it to the side for a moment to press a kiss to the back of her neck, and she giggled as his hands drifted down her back again. They curled around to her sides, careful not to become ticklish touches, and he smoothed them over her shoulders and down her arms. He paid special attention to her hands, taking his time to do each side separately so he could use both of his own on hers. He made sure to smooth the soap between her fingers and knead into her palms, the same to the back of her hands but careful with the sensitive tendons there. The process was repeated on her other just after, and she leaned back only to be met with the solid expanse of his chest.

Despite the sensuality of the interaction, there was almost nothing sexual about it like the Princess had read about before in some of her more erotic books that she had stolen from Urbosa back in the day. She remembered blushing over the vivid details of a bath scene, but it was nothing compared to how tender it really was. This was tender. It was gentle.

But more than anything else, it was loving. A quiet but deep affection with every glide of his hands; not just for her body, but for _her._

It wasn’t any different even when his hands drifted over her chest, their intention only to lather her with soap, and she felt _cared for._ It wasn’t any different even when his hands ran over her thighs, and she felt _relaxed._ It wasn’t any different even when his hands came back to her back, easing out all the tension in her body, nor when he thoroughly rinsed her off with what was left of the bucket. 

And when she turned around, clean now from head to toe, his eyes were not on her skin, but locked onto her eyes, and she couldn’t help the surge of fondness that tightened her chest. It only wound tighter, too, when he cupped her face as if he held the entire world in his hands and laid a kiss on her lips, one so chaste and so soft that words failed to express the emotion that bombarded her.

The Champion finished washing himself down while Zelda dried herself off with one of the towels that were now warm and a little damp from the condensation in the air. Link retrieved the Great Flameblade from the bucket it was resting in, the metal hitting against the side of the pail with a soft clang. The Princess tossed him a clean towel, which he caught one-handedly before it fluttered to the wet floor, and she smiled apologetically. He allowed her privacy to change into her nightgown, and he came out a few moments later once she had flopped herself onto the plush sheets of the bed. He pulled on his blue shorts, a loose-fitting pair of comfortable trousers, and a clean undershirt, crawling onto the opposite side and blowing out the lantern on the bedside table. Zelda rolled onto her side, turning to face him as he curled up next to her, and she smiled at the sight of his unruly hair. It looked silkier than normal, and she supposed it wasn’t that often that she got to see it wet. 

She reached out, curling a finger around the long strands, and she hummed as it rolled through her fingers. “Has it always been this long?” She asked absent-mindedly, curling one of her calves with his.

 _You cut it not that long ago, remember? In Zora’s Domain,_ he responded.

“No, I mean the length. I have only ever seen it to your shoulders or longer. Has it ever been shorter?” 

Link’s face fell, and she wondered why for a moment before she was hit in the face with realization when he answered, _I do not know._

“Sorry,” she mumbled, but was a little relieved to see his face curl into a grin, even if it was brimmed with sadness. 

_You said in Zora’s Domain that you remembered the day we met. Did I have long hair then, too?_ He signed.

“You did,” she whispered. “You wore it in the same style then as well, actually.”

He chuckled, and there was a moment of drawn out silence between them. She watched his eyes flicker back and forth at nothing in particular as if puzzling something out. His brow was furrowed, and she tried to smooth out the worry lines by pushing her hand through his damp bangs. He closed his eyes, then shifted his hands within view. _Do you think I will ever get those memories back?_

Her heart _hurt._ She had watched this boy for most of her life grow into a strong, talented warrior worthy of the sword he carried on his back. She had watched him fight, and fight, and win, until suddenly he didn’t. She had watched him choke on his final breath, blood dripping down his chin as his lungs rejected the fluid that filled them, and she had felt him Awaken in the Shrine of Resurrection one hundred years later. She had felt him struggle and ache, and when the final battle was over, he had sobbed. Three years later and he still carried that heavy burden - one that she wished she could take away from him and let him be as happy as he deserved to be.

But that hadn’t happened. Fate had laughed at him - Hylia had laughed at him - and only allowed him to recover the memories that mattered to his mission, and nothing more. She had stripped him of who he had been, who he could have become, and turned him into a faceless soldier left to scramble to figure out who he had been before.

And she wanted so badly, so _desperately_ to tell him that she did believe that his memories would return one day - that yes, he would be able to remember his birthday, and what his father’s face looked like, and how he had learned to ride and train horses, and what it was like the first time he wielded a sword.

But she couldn’t. She _couldn’t,_ and her heart ached for him.

So she said the only thing she could.

“I wish I knew.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been absolutely slammed with work this semester! I've also been procrastinating harder than I ever have before! Hurray! It is also honorable enough for me to mention that I have hit a slump in writing this fic recently since my friends got me addicted to Genshin Impact (discount-anime-gacha-botw basically), and until I fish myself out of it I'll be posting prewritten chapters. Because of that, they'll have to be cut back in length, but most of my chapters are longer anyway, so I'm not too worried. 
> 
> Again, sorry about the late post! I know I usually post in the morning, but it completely slipped my mind.


	12. A Quick Remedy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first and foremost I'd like to apologize. I was injured pretty badly a few weeks ago, and I was only cleared today to look at screens. Additionally, because of this, I will probably only be posting biweekly now until I fully recover (or until I feel like I have reached a point in this story where I run out of juice). That being said, the next chapter will be posted on November 12th while I pull myself back together a little more! Thank you for sticking with me through all this inconsistency :).

Link hadn’t cried. For the first time, he hadn’t cried. His body was exhausted from burning energy he didn’t remember expending. The girl beside him was running her fingers through his hair comfortingly, and he centered himself on the sensation. 

Her answer wasn’t what he wanted to hear. It was exactly what he had dreaded all this time, and he wasn’t sure why he had asked her in the first place when he knew what she was going to say. Of course it hadn’t made him feel any better, though he guessed he hadn’t expected it to. When he was feeling rather hopeful, he had told himself that all was not lost, and that there was still time to recover memories that simply weren’t saved onto the Sheikah Slate. But that, too, was shut down as he realized that there just… weren’t. After Calamity Ganon’s defeat, he and the Princess spent a year trying to organize themselves to restart the kingdom, and in that time had journeyed throughout most of Hyrule. The Princess had dragged him to different locations where they had been one hundred years before, but nothing had come back to him. Not even when they stood before what used to be his father’s - Link’s childhood’s - home. 

He had cried when he recovered the memories from the Sheikah Slate. Every time, he had cried. At the time, the Princess hadn’t been there to witness it, but he had crumpled to the ground and sobbed.

But he didn’t now. And it wasn’t for lack of despair, but simply the lack of energy. He was tired of feeling like this, but it was hard to move on when it was all he knew. There _were_ no happy memories left besides the one from when she had tried to feed him a frog, so every time he looked back at his life one hundred years prior, all he could recall was the thick smell of smoke, blood, and the feeling of every ache and pain left behind after being beaten, jumped, and bloodied.

And it was nights like these, spent in the epicenter of all of his trauma, that he could bring himself to sleep the least. He had less trouble the farther away from the Blatchery Plain he was, but here, in Kakariko, his horrible past followed him into his unconsciousness. 

Of course, he was a little better now. He was able to pass by the graveyard of Guardians without shedding tears. He was able to fend off bokoblins and the like without surviving completely off adrenaline. He was able to look the Princess in the eye without picturing her crying face hovering over his own as his vision blacked out and the warm sensation of his own blood dripping down his chin.

It had gotten easier. Not a lot easier, but just a little.

“We are going to survive.” Zelda’s voice shocked him out of his thoughts, and he turned to her.

Her hand stopped stroking his hair, and he missed the feeling of her fingers raking across his scalp the moment they left. They didn’t move far, though, drifting down to cup his face as she smiled so, so softly at him.

“We have survived,” she whispered.

_I love you,_ he wanted to sign, but his hands cramped at the first word. Instead, he nodded, and he felt the soft press of soft lips against his forehead as she pushed his messy bangs back. She wiggled closer then, wrapping her arms around his neck to cradle his head against her chest, and Link leaned into the warmth. He wondered if she also was choking on the emotion stuck in his throat, but he didn’t have the courage to say anything. Instead, he held her tight, closed his eyes, breathed her in, and hoped that these actions spoke for him. He tapped thrice on her side, and he felt a strange surge of sadness overwhelm him when she tapped thrice back.

The Champion tried to sleep. He really, really tried. Zelda had fallen asleep over an hour ago, the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest atesting to it. His face was buried in her sternum still, and normally that would embarrass him, but he only felt exhausted. His eyelids would shut, only to snap open quickly. His hands clenched at her nightgown with a ferocity that he didn’t realize he possessed, but he quickly revised the action when she stirred because of it. 

She was warm, but he couldn’t fall into the sensation like he normally could. His body felt like it weighed twice as much as it normally did, and every intake of breath was a fight with his lungs, but no matter how many times he forced his mind to be clear, and his eyelids to fall, he would only snap them back open a few moments later.

Maybe it hadn’t gotten easier after all.

No. He couldn’t fall into that mindset. Healing took time, and he _had_ improved. The mental wounds he had suffered were deep, but they had surely closed by now. Scarred, perhaps, but closed. Eventually he would have to learn how to sleep in Kakariko again. He _had_ to learn.

Another hour passed, and frustration gripped his mind. He had a headache now, throbbing and painful. It was from lack of sleep, he knew. He had spent days in such a headache after his Awakening, refusing to close his eyes in case danger popped up suddenly. 

In all honesty, it wasn’t the worst he had ever had, but that didn’t make it any less painful. With every breath he drew, it pounded against his head, and the process would just repeat. 

It hadn’t even been that long since he’d slept last. It was true, the day they arrived in Hateno Village, he had woken with a start, but he had managed to fall back asleep and obtain a passable amount of rest that night. The night before, however, he had only managed a few hours, dreading the trip through the Blatchery Plains. It had helped to cook - to get his mind off of what was going to come - but he didn’t have such luxury now. And now he couldn’t sleep at all, and all he could do was listen to the sound of her breathing.

Blood flow had been lost to his arm for the past two hours now, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. His body felt hot and heavy, and his eyes ached from being open for so long. After awhile, he stopped checking the clock on the bedside table, forcing himself into a lull between awareness and sleep. He didn’t stir from this until the first rays of sun began washing the room in daylight, and the Princess laid asleep for another several hours before she woke. There was now direct sunlight coming in now, enough that a candle was not needed.

Zelda’s eyes only fluttered open when the rays began inching across her eyelids, and with a great yawn she was finally able to take in her surroundings.

Neither had moved since she fell asleep, and she pet the back of his head as she felt his warm breath against her chest. The responding fisting of his hands into her gown told her he was awake, and she smiled affectionately as she whispered into his hair. “Good morning.”

He tapped twice on her back, inhaling deeply as he nuzzled his face further into her hold.

His arm, having lost sensation long ago, twitched, and she wiggled off of it with an apology on her lips. It moved awkwardly to the side without any real coordination, but after clenching and unclenching his fist a few times, blood rushed through it again, and he curled it between them.

The Princess sat up a little, adjusting herself so as not to disturb her knight. It was hard not to, though, when he was so in her personal space, and he grunted with dissatisfaction when she shifted. She draped a hand over his shoulder apologetically, then glanced at the clock. It read 7:13, and she sighed.

“We should go find those herbs before the rest of the village stirs,” she said, settling her weight back down onto the bed to his side. He wheezed out his own sigh, and she looked at him curiously, but shook it off quickly. “Come on,” she prompted, tucking his sidelocks behind one of his pointed ears. “We can eat something afterwards, if you like.”

Link’s eyes drifted shut, opening drowsily again after a moment. It was when he sat up and scrubbed at his face that she noticed the deep hue of his skin beneath his eyes.

“How long have you been awake?” She asked, brushing his hand to the side as she pulled herself to her knees.

Link only hummed, smiling at her as he moved away from her touch, crawling off the bed. _It is nothing,_ he signed passively.

“I asked how long you have been awake,” Zelda repeated, this time a little more forcefully.

Her knight glanced back at her tiredly, but said nothing as he gathered his hair into a ponytail once he was standing. When he finished, he turned. _Since last night._

He wouldn’t lie to her, and she knew it, but she hadn’t been expecting that answer. “You never fell asleep?” She asked incredulously, her face marring with concern.

_Come on,_ he urged her, mimicking her earlier words. _You wanted to get them before the village stirs._

“Link, you have not _slept,_ ” the Princess said, standing up to walk over to him. She laid her hand on his arm when he tugged at his undershirt to tug it off, stopping him.

_Nothing I have not done before,_ he assured her with a wry smile, pulling it over his head.

Her face only creased further with worry, and he chuckled as he placed a gentle kiss on her lips. When he pulled away, she continued. “Was it because of what I said to you last night?” 

_No,_ he insisted immediately, pulling his hylian tunic over his head.

“Then what?” 

_Like I said, it is nothing. I know what a sleepless night is like, Zelda. Please do not make this into something more than it is._

“What do you mean, ‘make it into something?’ How often do you have restless nights?” The Princess whispered.

Link exhaled heavily, meeting her eyes before his own flicked away. She thought he was about to dodge the question, but he didn’t. Twice a week maybe? Only when we are near here, anyway.

“Twice a week,” she gasped, tugging at his sleeve weakly. “And this is the first I have heard of it? How can that be so?”

_It is much better now than it was After,_ he signed.

“That does not matter. Why are you unable to sleep?”

He hesitated. _Nightmares._

Zelda’s face fell. She knew exactly what those were like. 

_It is not like we are here often. It is not that big of a deal._

She couldn’t believe him. Not a big deal? He wasn’t sleeping! “How can you say that? You said ‘near here.’ Does it have to do with Kakariko?”

_You know what it has to do with._

She did. She absolutely did. To her, though, the Blatchery Plains were a place of hope for her, even if she had lost her best friend to the Malice-infected Guardians. It was where her power had finally awoken, where she realized the boy dying in her arms could be saved, where she finally, _finally_ had a weapon she could use against Calamity Ganon. So of course it affected her differently, and she knew that it would be silly to think otherwise, but Zelda had no idea how deeply it pained him until just now. She figured that it was natural that he would flinch or try to avoid the place where he had died - literally _died_ \- and she politely ignored those reactions because, really, why wouldn’t he?

Her hand smoothed over his shoulder. “I do not want to nag you about it. I cannot imagine what it was like, and I hope I never do, but I just… I wish you would have said something.”

_Sorry,_ he signed, and she quickly waved her arms dismissively.

“There is nothing to be sorry for, Link. I just want to help you. I would never have suggested we come here if I had known it bothered you so deeply.”

_No, no._ This time it was him waving his arms back and forth. _I had to resolve things here anyway; it was not like I could stay away forever. Besides, it has been fun. It can still be fun. I just… I just need to be able to…_

“Stay awake?” She asked, empathy etched deep in the worry lines across her forehead.

He nodded weakly, but didn’t allow his face to fall into sadness. There had been enough depressing thoughts all night, after all. Right now, he was staring into the concerned eyes of the girl he loved, and all he wanted to do was erase them, even if he felt deeply loved himself by her worries.

“I can stay up with you,” she concluded suddenly. “We do not have to stay any longer than today. We can leave first thing tomorrow morning, and I can put you to bed on your own mattress, and pillows, and sheets, and I- I can make you your favorite food. Then you can sleep-”

He grabbed her shoulders, chuckling. _I am fine, Zelda._

She didn’t believe him, but instead of fighting it, she only said, “Okay.”

_‘Okay?’ How lame,_ he teased, ruffling her bedhead.

“You-!”

Fifteen minutes later, they were changed and out the door. She had run him around the room until she had cornered him, and he had swept her up from her waist as she laughed maybe a little too loudly for being in an inn so early in the morning. Now, though, she was in a pair of her own hylian attire, her hood pulled over her head while Link fastened the bandana of what he liked to call his “climbing gear” over his head. 

Zelda always thought her knight looked a little silly in this outfit, but he had insisted that the very Great Fairy just beyond the Shrine nearby had enhanced it to make climbing easier, so she let it go. 

“It looks like this,” she said, pointing to a rough sketch in one of her research journals. He nodded, but she huffed. “I do not understand why I cannot go up there with you.”

_Simple. You could fall,_ the Champion signed.

“So could you, especially in the sleep-deprived state you currently are in.” His nose wrinkled at the mention, so she dropped it. “Anyway, I have sent you on fetch quests before, and you have a running streak of bringing back the wrong things.”

He groaned. _Are you still on about that?_

“Of course I am! I sent you out for warm safflina and you came back with electric!”

_They are almost the same color!_ He deflected. _Besides, that was - what? - last year?_

“What importance does the amount of time passed have?”

_That I learned the difference!_ The knight huffed indignantly, snatching the book out of her hands and squinting at the image. It looked like any other herb, really, except for the unique frill of the leaves on the flowers. _Do we even know if it is in bloom?_ He asked.

She grabbed the journal back indignantly. “It is not, and that is why I am reluctant to let you go up there alone. It has no pictures of what it looks like when it is dormant, so you have to-”

_I have to squint,_ he finished. _I got it, I got it. Will it even work if it is not in bloom?_

Zelda trailed a finger over the text on the pages, then tapped a note. “It says that regardless of the time of year, potency is not affected, so that would be a yes.”

He sighed, turning towards the steep cliffs of Bonooru’s Stands. He reached out a gloved hand, finding a handhold before stepping closer to the vertical wall. Before he could jump up, though, he felt a small hand touch his shoulder, and he turned around.

“If you fall, I will not forgive you,” she said, her jaw set.

The bags under his eyes crinkled as he smiled, using his left hand to brush his knuckles against her jawline as if to loosen it up. It worked, surprisingly, and he hummed contentedly before turning back to the wall. Sticking his tongue out in concentration, he leapt upwards, catching a handhold quickly, and began his ascent. 

The Princess watched as he daringly jumped most of the way up the cliff, an anxious lump keeping her from taking healthy, even breaths. She had seen him do this a hundred times before, but it never got any easier. It did, however, get more and more impressive. Finally, he scrambled over the edge, and her heart got stuck in her throat as she watched him roll over it. A moment later, though, he stuck his head over the ledge, panting, and threw her a cheeky thumbs up.

She laughed, waving to him weakly, and then he was gone.

Gods, she hoped he brought back the right thing.

With time to herself now, she pulled out her personal journal and her charcoal pencil, eagerly opening it to the last few pages still available. She had gone through three of them since Link had given hers to her after Calamity Ganon’s defeat. She ahd been irritated with him that he had violated her privacy so by reading the one he had stolen from the Castle, but after one hundred years, such a grudge felt silly, and she had let it go. Apparently he had looted the castle and Castle Town’s ruins before squaring up with the beast of Malice in the sanctum, but that piece of information surprised no one. 

Unfortunately, cracking open her journal wasn’t something she had time for on a daily basis anymore. It used to be an everyday activity that she would return to her chambers in the evening, and catalog the day’s happenings. Now, though, there were construction orders to sign, busywork to do, research to complete, and more recently a romantic partner that kept her company into the wee hours of the morning. Not to say she had no peace, as she had only last journaled not even a few days ago before they had left for Hateno Village.

As she smoothed her hands over her last handwriting, reading the last few sentences as if to get her mind in the right place, she read over the title of the list. “The Plan.” It hit her that she had not been actively following this course of action she had laid out for herself to help Link fully realize just how appreciated he was, but she laughed as she realized very few of her plans ever went accordingly in the first place. The only thing she had done, really, on that sheet of paper, was when she played dress-up the morning after they arrived in Hateno. 

The rest of it was written as if she had a schedule, but obviously that hadn’t exactly been followed to a T. She had written down several things that she would never dare say aloud, and now that she was less horny reading them than she was when she was writing them, they made her face burn a brilliant red. 

Kakariko Village hadn’t been a part of this plan, and now that she knew her knight was having issues sleeping because of their side trip, it wasn’t a good idea for them to stay long anyway. That brought her to a new objective, actually, and she temporarily closed the journal to pull out the herbs book she had just been looking at. 

It was one that Link had given her - one he had salvaged from the castle’s library one day upon her request about two years ago. In its pages was every known herb in Hyrule, but she was sure that being at least as old as her, it was probably outdated by now. Regardless, it still had several useful elixir recipes in it that were attached at the bottom of each herb’s information, and she flipped through it.

“Drowsy Valerian…” the Princess mumbled to herself, sweeping her finger down the list of names on the table of contents. She ran past it, but paused and jumped back up to it. Here we go, she thought, bringing herself to cross her legs on the ground beside the cliffside.

_Drowsy Valerian_

__

__

_A medicinal herb traditionally used in order to treat insomnia, its roots having a property within them that makes the user drowsy. The root itself is a striated and long limb that reaches far into the ground, making its removal tricky. If the root is cut or severed, its properties are lost, so when farming or gardening such an herb, it is advised to be cautious._

_Additionally, the flower of Drowsy Valerian’s petals can be crushed into powder and taken orally to help with anxiety, but its effectiveness has proven to vary. When taken for the first time, use restraint in the dosage, as too much can cause nausea, headaches, stomach pains, delirium, and confusion. However, taking too little can dampen its effectiveness._

_When mixed with Hyrule Herb (see page 432), Hyssop (see page 118), and brewed into tea, it can become a knock-out agent that will numb pain and put the user into a deep sleep that they will not arouse from until given Ashwagandha in amounts proportional to the initial dosage of the aforementioned mixture. This is most commonly used in health wards in order to ease patients’ anguish when an operation is necessary._

_The Drowsy Valerian is characterised by its bushy stem and leafy foliage that is evenly dispersed up its stem. At the top, it splits into two where each end will grow a large, lily-like flower with exactly eight stamens, and three stigmas each. The flower itself is a faded purple color with blue highlights that vary in frequency on the petals depending on how far north the herb is found. It most commonly grows in the Hebra region, but can be cultivated and grown domestically in conditions that mimic those of that region._

_Unfortunately, its effectiveness is a short timeframe, so health wards and herbalists hoping to get a hold of such an herb should consider opening their own greenhouse in order to have year-round supply of such a helpful plant. Its narrow window of flowering is from the eleventh month of one year to the end of the first year of the next, and will bloom only at night. However, the time it blooms and when it is harvested is irrelevant and will not affect its potentness. Once plucked, it has a lifespan of about four days without water before it will begin to wither, and about a week with water before doing the same._

_Elixirs_

_Knock-out agent: 4 parts Drowsy Valerian, 2 parts Hyssop, 5 parts Hyrule Herb, 7 parts boiling water.  
General sleeping agent: 6 parts Drowsy Valerian, 7 parts boiling water._

There was an image of the flower as well as its roots attached on the next page before switching to the next herb, and Zelda took a moment to reread everything on its page. Quite honestly, she couldn’t think of a better solution to this problem. Convincing Link to take such a thing won’t be too hard, she hoped. The only thing that may stop him was his pride, but that could be easily fixed with an order if it came to it.

The Princess closed the informational text, tucking it safely back into her satchel next to her own journal. She fished the contraceptive elixir recipe out of her pocket, now neatly folded even though the parchment itself was heavily wrinkled from being manhandled by her knight. She checked each herb again, ensuring that they were not missing anything, and tucked it back into her pocket once more. Hopefully when they go to buy the rest of the ingredients that they couldn’t immediately find, she could also purchase some Drowsy Valerian. Fortunately, the woman who ran the general store in Kakariko Village had a small pool of herbs in her shop, so perhaps she carried what they were looking for.

Her journal was taken back out of her satchel, and Zelda sighed as she began scribbling on the next blank page. She wasn’t sure how long Link would be gone, but something told her he might be awhile. As far as she knew, the plant he was searching for wasn’t rare as much as it was elusive. The herb book she had just closed had said that it dwelled in shallow caves in cracks in the rock, or sometimes under trees or bushes in the right climate. Since there weren’t an abundance of trees on the higher plateaus on top of the cliffs, though, it could very well be awhile before he returned with them. 

Ever prepared, she had brought things with her to keep her occupied. He had asked her that she not roam around while he was searching when they were making their way southward down the path out of the village, and she had reluctantly agreed. She had tried to argue that there were so many things she could be doing, like studying the plant life around the Great Fairy Fountain, or looking for the blupee that had apparently been spotted hopping around Kakariko, but he had insisted that she stay put where he could come right back after retrieving the herb. It was for safety reasons, he explained, and Zelda decided to stop after that.

After filling out the journal to her heart’s content, Link was still nowhere to be seen. She spent about five minutes watching the cliffside where he had disappeared, but gave up soon after, figuring he wouldn’t come back any sooner if she watched. 

She had packed her embroidery kit into her satchel as well with a few squares of cloth, practicing the floral pattern she had learned before she had left. Her fingers still felt unfamiliar holding the needle and thread in her hands. She had only recently picked up the skill again, and full dexterity was something that still sometimes eluded her after her time without physical form. The last time she had done any real project was one hundred years prior - when she had embroidered the Champions’ tunics. The designs were simple at the time, but she was rather proud of them as she bestowed them each to the chosen few at the ceremony her father held for them all. 

It was touching that Link still wore his as often as he did. It made her feel appreciated, even if she had to repair the patterns whenever he got a little too rough with whatever he was fighting and ripped the fabric. She had thought about redoing his tunic one day - something of the same color but with more designs. It was due for an update, after all. It’d been a hundred years. In fact, when she had finally seen him for the first time after Calamity Ganon’s defeat, it had deeply surprised her that he was wearing it. At that point in the battle, it was nearly in ribbons, and he had spent a good week or so sewing it back to a point where it was wearable again. When he had excitedly burst into her tent that night, proudly holding up the blue tunic, it was the first time she had seen him smile since that day in Hyrule Field.

His birthday was coming up, and she thought that maybe that was a gift idea. She would have to talk to the dye merchant in Hateno though to see what could be done about getting the correct color, though.

Not much later, a few pebbles fell from the cliffs above, and she sneezed at the dust that followed. Squinting as she looked up, she was curious to find that nothing stared back at her. She waited a moment, and she looked back down at her embroidery when nothing happened. 

Then, though, she heard it. 

It was shrill and crackly - a squeal characteristic to only one type of creature followed by the roar of another. Her eyes snapped up to the cliffside, adrenaline shooting through her veins. Shortly after, there was a blue explosion followed by an echoing boom that made her shrink away. Another roar and squeal were screamed into the air, but nothing followed. She held her breath as she watched the ledge, anticipating what might come over it. She knew exactly what that blue bomb was, but she wasn’t sure if the battle had yet been won.

A few seconds later, Link’s face popped over the edge, blood dripping down his nose. The Princess couldn’t tell the extent of his injuries from where she stood, and could only breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he was alright. The Champion huffed out his own breath, but as he swung himself over the edge, she watched as he descended the cliff with only one hand. The other, his right, hung limply at his side, the shoulder hunched forward in an unnatural way.

A lump quickly formed in her throat, and she rushed up to the point where he would touch down onto solid ground again.

“Oh my gods,” she gasped as she held out her arms to receive him as he jumped down to the ground. He landed heavily, a bruise on his cheekbone, his nose bloody, and a crooked smile on his face. “What happened?”

_Bokoblin camp,_ he spelled quickly, his left hand clumsier. He buried his left hand awkwardly into the satchel, pulling out the herb he had been sent for. _Correct?_ He signed.

“Gods, yes, it is, but- I mean, what _happened?_ ” Zelda asked, gently taking the herb from him and tucking it back into her bag. “I mean, you- you rarely get beaten up like this. And your arm-”

_Dislocated. Help?_

She hesitated a moment, thinking that maybe it would be best for a healer to do this, but then she nodded quickly. “Y-yeah. What do I need to do?”

Link looked lost for a moment, then backed himself up against the cliff’s wall. _Push,_ he gestured, collecting both of her hands in his left and placing them on his shoulder with a grimace.

“I do not think this is the right way to do this,” she whispered, steeling herself against the awful feeling of the bones that were clearly out of place under her fingers. 

He reached into his bag for a moment, pulled out a small dagger, and gripped the handle in his teeth. _Push,_ he commanded again, then held up three fingers.

As the countdown began, she felt blood rush through her ears. This could make it worse, right? He made it back this far, shouldn’t he wait a little longer to be in more responsible hands? Or maybe it hurt too much? Why had she let him go scaling cliffs alone when he hadn’t slept in over thirty hours? She wasn’t good in a fight, but she could have at least warned him! 

Panic coursed through her as his final finger dropped, and she turned her brain off as she surged forward, a horrible crack echoing around them as his shoulder went back into place. He cried out, throwing his head back against the rocks as his teeth bared and dug into the handle of the dagger, heaving for a second after it was done. She immediately lurched off of him the moment it was done, and suddenly nausea overtook her. 

“Are you alright?” She asked instead of vomiting, prioritizing the knight sucking in deep gasps of air as frequent as his lungs would allow him.

He nodded, spitting the dagger out into his left palm as he let it fall into the bottomless bag across his shoulder, then smeared the blood from his nose on the back of his hand. Nap, he spelled, obviously trying not to use his right hand.

She chuckled desperately, the gravity of the situation still heavy between them. “Come on, let us get you back to the inn.”

Again, the Champion’s head bobbed thankfully, now with a relieved smile playing across his lips.

For someone as beaten up as he was, he walked perfectly fine, refusing her offers to lighten his load or to lean on her. He pulled a red elixir out of his back at some point and downed it, and Zelda was almost surprised when he began rolling the discomfort out of his shoulder.

“I do not think you are supposed to be able to do that so soon after dislocating your shoulder,” she said, frowning at the absurdity of it.

He winced when he shrugged, earning a short chastisement from his charge. By the time they were walking back into Kakariko Village, though, he was using both hands to sign again, and his face was a little swollen where he was hit.

She did her best to usher him towards the inn, insisting that it didn’t matter that the magical properties of his strangely powerful elixir seemed to have were so effective, and that he needed to rest anyway. Link disagreed, changing their direction towards the general store where he told her that since they were already out and about, he could pick up some ingredients to not only make something to eat, but also purchase the rest of the herbs they needed for the contraceptive elixir.

The Champion won out, however, and Zelda shuffled through the general store grumbling about it. He ruffled her hair, and she swatted at his hand, seething at the way he chuckled.

_It will only take a second,_ he signed, pausing to grab the notepad and pen out of his satchel in front of the counter.

“Please, let me know what I can help you with,” the woman said, smiling from her eyes. 

The Princess sighed, listing off the other herbs from the wrinkled list. “Oh, and Drowsy Valerian,” she added quickly before the shopkeeper had the chance to disappear into the back.

Her knight threw her a confused glance, suspicion in his blue eyes. _I said I would be fine._

“You were jumped by bokoblins,” she replied quietly. “That never happens. You are not fine.”

He sighed deeply, pushing his bangs over his forehead for a moment as he caved.

A few moments later the shopkeeper came back out, laying the order out into a small square section of cloth. She wrapped them all up carefully, and Link gathered up the ingredients he wanted to buy on the side. She nodded gratefully, waving the two off as they exited the store and thanking them for their patronage. 

“So I can get the elixirs started,” Zelda began as they crossed the road towards the inn,carrying most of what they had bought to spare his arm. “I suggest getting a bath of some sort. You are covered in mud, and the water will be good for your bruise.”

The Champion huffed, voicing his displeasure by her orders with a hard stare. But she would not be convinced of this, too distracted by the bags under his eyes and the aches he undoubtedly carried with him from his scuffle.

She watched him with concern as he ascended the stairs, even though he hadn’t demonstrated any signs of soreness in his legs. He gestured for her to enter as he swung the door open in a grand way, and she only smirked at him as she went in. As he rifled through his satchel and pulled out his Great Flameblade to heat the water in the washroom again, she asked him if there was any chance he had anything to heat water with. He pulled out a regular Flameblade, surprising no one, and he showed her how to activate it before she burned the inn down.

Zelda helped him out of his shirt, discreetly checking the rest of his torso and upper body for bruises while the skin was bare to her, and he gratefully accepted it. She pulled his hair free as Link unbuckled his belt and slipped out of the rest of the climbing gear, and she turned around to focus on getting the elixirs started. 

There was a bit of embarrassment burning in her chest as she read through the contraceptive’s instructions, the weight of the implications behind it bringing a redness to her cheeks. She reminded herself to focus, though, and looked back at the directions. Link had left out a mortar and pestle for her to use as well as a small knife that he had warned her to be careful of, gesturing to her still wrapped finger from two days prior. She had waved him off, shooing him into the washroom, but she was extra careful now to keep her skin away from the blade now as she clipped the herbs’ extremities off.

With the contraceptive started, she moved on to the tea, starting by skinning the roots and setting them into the bucket of water with the flameblade. It didn’t take long before the smell started to permeate the air - a pungent odor that smelled distinctly like Goron Spice. It was spicy, and it burned her nostrils whenever she breathed in, but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Link would probably like it better, she thought.

Link did not like it better, in fact. When it hit his nose as he came out, he audibly choked, actually. As he towel dried himself off as much as he could, wrapping the cloth around his hips to keep some semblance of modesty, she tried to pour him a cup.

“You are completely exhausted, Link!” She cried, shoving it into his face. “Do not be such a child.”

_That smells rancid,_ he shot back, shrinking away from the proffered cup.

“Who cares what it smells like! Just drink it,” Zelda demanded.

_Absolutely not._

“Link!”

_Zelda!_

She pursed her lips, her brows furrowed irritatedly. “Drink it,” she said, using the tone of voice she reserved only for direct orders - something he wasn’t allowed to disobey.

The authority in her voice made him step back, knowing exactly what she was trying to do. _I thought we were supposed to be being normal this week,_ he signed quickly, snatching the cup out of her hand.

The Princess crossed her arms indignantly, her face steeled. “Please, for the love of Hylia, do not make me force it down your throat.”

The knight growled in his chest, ticked that she had broken their normalcy agreement but not about to break his oath. He knocked it back in one fell motion, wiping the back of his hand as he considered its taste. In all honesty, for as bad as it smelled, it just tasted like hot water. He felt a little childish after that, like he had made a big deal over nothing, but the irritation lingered in his creased brow. 

She sighed heavily, taking the empty cup from his hands. “Gods, you test me. Here I am being all house-wifey, and you resist my simple efforts to help you. Go lay down now, and close your eyes.”

Always one for the dramatics, he groaned, tipping his head back as he shuffled his way over to the bed and collapsed onto his left side. He wiggled under the sheets, and Zelda had to toss him a pair of shorts to cover up as he had neglected to put anything on besides the towel wrapped loosely around his hips. She noticed him still laying off his right side, frowned, and checked the contraceptive elixir before following him over to the bed. She settled onto her right side, facing his grumpy stare, and she twitched a blonde brow up at the challenge. When his eyes flicked down, she knew she had won.

“It is still a little bruised,” the Princess said quietly, reaching out to trace her fingers over the darkened area of his shoulder. “Are you sure that elixir was enough?” 

The Champion breathed deeply, shifting himself so that he could sign. _It happened a lot right after my Awakening,_ he explained. _It never caused me any lasting issues, so I am not worried._

“Perhaps we ought to get you checked out by Impa just in case, though,” she replied, following the bruises until she began trailing some of his scars. 

_I am fine,_ he insisted for the umpteenth time that day. When he caught her skeptical glare, he chuckled. _Really._

“You have said that a lot today, and proved it to be untrue just as often.”

_Sometimes I have to be the fussy, problematic one._

She gaped at him and he chuckled. “I am not fussy or problematic!”

_You are right, Princess, my apologies. Not fussy or problematic at all._

“If I had not just given you something to put you to sleep, I would beat you with these pillows,” she laughed, jabbing him in the side. He squirmed away, fending off her small hands with a smile.

She rolled, tangling her legs in his in order to force him to follow her momentum as she sat atop his legs. Link made no struggle against her, happy to allow her to lead the movement until she was settled in his lap. _Comfortable?_ He teased, resting his hands on her hips once one signing.

“Quite,” she said smugly, leaning down to press a kiss to his lips before allowing her head to fall to the side on his chest. She listened to the thump of his heart, pleased that it seemed a little faster than normal, and she wrapped her arms around his torso before burying her head into the crook of his shoulder.

Her face was pressed into the soft sheets, and he shifted his head so his hair wouldn’t get caught beneath her.

“Really, now,” Zelda began again, her voice just a whisper. “Try to sleep.”

Link sighed deeply, but rested his arms on her back and relaxed his legs around her own. He couldn’t tell if the exhaustion he felt was from everything he had already done that day or from the tea, but it weighed heavily on his eyelids. Outside, he could hear the shrieks of the village children beginning their long day of fun, and morning birds that hadn’t yet stopped singing still made their calls into the crisp air. Absently, he wondered what time it was.

Even as the Drowsy Valerian began taking hold of his mind, it was still difficult to will his eyes to stay closed. Part of him feared the nightmares that typically came, and part of him feared his reaction might be anything like it was with Paya three years ago. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he ever brandished his weapon against her, and the thought of it alone made his insides twist.

His thoughts were interrupted, though, by gentle touches against his damp, bare skin, as her hands ran soothing patterns over his arms and down his sides. It was a little easier, he noticed, to clear his mind when the one he loved was being so kind to him, and a deep satisfaction within him prompted him to grunt softly with pleasure. 

Zelda felt his body slow down each of its functions as the tea gripped the boy beneath her, and she marveled at how his body relaxed under the soft strokes of her sweeping hands. She was extra gentle with his right arm and shoulder, avoiding the nasty bruise left behind as much as she could. After a few minutes, though, her knight stilled, his breathing evened out, and his heart slowed

It was hard not to cheer as she gently sat up, bringing her arm to her side to gently sweep away the bangs that clung wetly to his face. Love swelled in her chest as she watched his sleeping face, drinking in how he looked completely at peace as he was now. She decided that it was probably better she not disrupt him now that he had finally managed to catch a few winks, figuring that she would undoubtedly arouse him from his slumber if she tried to move. So Zelda buried her face back into the pillows to the side of his head, settling her weight onto her knight fully as she allowed her own eyes to drift shut again.

Having gotten a full night’s rest, she wasn’t all that tired, but she knew that by closing her eyes for long enough that she would be able to at least nap. With his scent of leather, salt, and metal filling her nose, she was able to drift away, her soothing caresses slowing as she nodded off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized about halfway through my first playthrough of botw that I just? Never let Link sleep? As in, never, ever let him sleep. I very rarely let him rest, either. Remedied that on my second playthrough.


	13. Dawning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be posted on Nov 26, 2020.

She woke to movement and her body being held by an intense heat. As Zelda was shifted, her eyes flew open with immediate awareness. Her weight was rolled from her stomach on top of her knight to her side, his arms protectively around her as he held her close to his chest with his arms now wrapped around her neck and waist. 

The girl glanced up sleepily, meeting his slack-jawed face, his eyes closed and muscles relaxed. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in much of a position to check the clock, but it didn’t seem like they had been asleep for very long. She was glad, though, that even in the short period of time they had been napping the bags under his eyes seemed just a little lighter. 

The corner of her lips curled into the start of a smile, her hand coming up to brush against his skin tenderly. She couldn’t help but admire him as he was now. After all, it wasn’t often that he wore a face so vulnerable and relaxed. As bright as his smile was, his expression now was somehow brighter. It made the edge of his jawline stand out, and she softly dragged the tips of her fingers over the edge of it. When he stirred at the ticklish feeling, shying away from it a little, she giggled silently to herself as she pulled away, not wanting to disturb the peace he was finally getting.

Zelda risked a small shift of her weight in order to check the contraceptive elixir which was still gurgling as it brewed in the center of the small coffee table at the base of the bed. Its contents were purple now, and she wondered if that had anything to do with the Magenta Safflina. She recalled the specific usage instructions, having memorized them as soon as she had gotten hold of the list long enough to do so. Wrapped in the embrace of her knight, she recounted them one by one. 

Firstly, it had to be taken each day. Furthermore, at the same time each day, so it was safe to assume that it would last for twenty-four hours. Secondly, she had to make sure she took at least 118 milliliters with each dose. Thirdly, the elixir would only maintain its potency for a week, so she had to make more of it in five days if she somehow didn’t manage to use up all of what she had brewing now. Thirdly, it couldn’t be taken during her week of bleeding each month, so she wouldn’t be able to take it after this week anyway. Lastly, it had to be consumed orally, and she had already decided that she would take it strictly at noon, and had even set aside a small waterskin specifically for it.

She was a little glad Link wasn’t awake to see her mulling this over because he would have undoubtedly shied away from the topic. The Princess wasn’t sure why he was so bashful about it, but she couldn’t very well fault him when she herself was the same way.

It was a habit that they would have to grow out of, though. Relationships took communication and trust to thrive, and if neither of them were willing to talk about something just because it was a little uncomfortable, it wouldn’t be good news. Zelda sighed shallowly, dreading their conversation about her time of the month. She had never talked about that with him before, and she wasn’t sure just exactly how educated he was on it. She couldn’t imagine there weren’t at least some stories about it that circulated between the female guards, and sometimes the Gerudo were a little loose-lipped when they drank, but it wasn’t like it was some sort of secret. In fact, it was good that it was spoken so freely of because it was natural, and the Princess felt no shame for it.

It was just meaningless anxiety that worried her about that discussion, but that didn’t make it any less real. In the end, she resolved that she would sit him down before the end of the week to figure it out, deciding that speaking to him directly and bluntly was the best way to get through the many, _many_ layers of his skull.

Time ticked by, and she listened to the birds’ morning songs trickle away, and the sound of the village start to pick up. The walls of the inn were thick enough that none of it was enough to rouse the Champion, but when there was a shriek of laughter undoubtedly from one of the children, she checked his face for signs of disturbance.

He had always been a heavy sleeper though, as ironic as it seemed after he had gotten none the night before. It was much like how he ate, she observed with mirth: doing the action efficiently and well until there was no need to keep doing said action. She figured he would almost certainly be up and about in a few hours, but thought that maybe his internal clock would be off for a few days. That wasn’t a big deal, though, so she didn’t worry.

Her predictions turned out to be right, and after staring at him or dozing for the next three hours, she felt him stir. First he grunted, squinting into the light that came through the window that he normally wouldn’t have had to deal with on a normal sleeping schedule, but was greeted by the even brighter light of her smile as he cracked his eyes open.

“Good morning.” The Princess laid a kiss on his nose while he blinked away the cobwebs of sleep from his head.

Link only hummed in response, tightening his hold on her as his bare arms slid around her form. He huffed in annoyance, though, when he was met with the friction of cloth against his skin instead of her own.

“No nightmares?” She asked, brushing the bangs from his forehead as he yawned, burrowing his face into her shoulder. When he shook his head weakly, she mumbled, “Good.”

The Champion looked at the clock, willing the bleariness of his eyes to focus on the hands that pointed at each number. It was just after twelve - not an entirely ungodly hour to be waking up at. Still five hours later than he usually liked, though. It was nice that they didn’t have a schedule to uphold now that they weren’t within the suffocating confines of the castle. It felt right to be able to sleep in late with the Princess next to him, even if he was a little displeased by the lack of body heat he could feel through her clothes.

As Zelda gently stroked his hair as he drew himself back to full consciousness, an idea came to mind. She was slapped in the face that now was the perfect time to revisit her plan after having read through it once more earlier beneath the cliffs, and her soft smile curled into something a little more dangerous.

“Feeling better?” She asked first, genuinely curious as her hands ran up and down his muscular back.

Link’s head nodded awkwardly against her shoulder, and he responded to her touch by pulling her closer against him.

“Well, I have this idea, you see,” Zelda began innocently, shifting her legs to tangle a little more intently between his.

He grunted, hands pulling absently at the fabric of her tunic.

“Now that you have gotten your beauty sleep, I think it is time to figure out a way to wake you up.” Her hands punctually pushed against his chest for a moment, and he gave in with a frown. His gaze caught the molten emerald of her own, though, and his eyes widened as he pieced together just what she was planning.

Using the leverage she now had with her legs knotted with his, she heaved them both to the side, and she landed in his lap gently as he was pulled to his back. She was finding that she quite liked the view from here, gazing down at his boyish blush and his flustered expression. It didn’t hurt that he had already been undressed for her, having only slipped into shorts before passing out those few hours ago.

“So,” she continued once she was settled, planting a hand on his sternum to keep him from sitting up before dragging her palm down his chest. “Unless you have any grievances, I would like to help you wake up a little.”

Her smile was pure, and she did her best to keep her face devoid of any hint of what she had in mind, and she relished in how his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly. Zeld leaned down to press a kiss against his lips, swiping her tongue across his lips to coax his mouth open. He submitted easily, his eyes drifting closed as he brought one of his hands up to fist into the hair at the back of her neck. She shivered as his fingers tightened into her blonde locks, but she did her best to stay focused. 

She could feel his interest where she sat, and he was definitely getting a little harder with every rotation of her hips. The Princess grinded down onto him as her tongue overtook his mouth, running the muscle over his own as they fell into their easy rhythm they had grown accustomed to at this point. 

The hand that Link didn’t have fisted into her hair was at her waist, and he dragged it around to her lower back to try and undo the tunic she had on. Before he could get too carried away, though, Zelda pulled back, shuddering as he protested with a deep whine when he tried to follow her lips.

She used the hand planted on his sternum to prevent him from sitting up, panting slightly as arousal rushed through her veins and clouded her mind. Below him, he looked dazed, no doubt from his own interest and probably a little drowsiness from just having woken up, too.

“Shh,” she whispered, her left hand dragging from his jawline to his sternum. “I will take care of you.”

Link’s head fell back against the pillows, a quiet groan passing his lips as she gyrated her hips once more. Enough blood had pumped southward in his body now that he was pitching a tent in his shorts, but she knew he was barely halfway hard. After all, she had held the full product in her hand before. 

Heat rushed to the apex of her being, and she shivered as she felt a wetness gather between her legs. The grinding helped, but she knew that that would only be temporary pleasure. It may hold her off for now, but she knew it would become something overwhelming and impossible to ignore eventually. So, in the interest of time, she allowed herself to lean down at place a kiss where her hand had been on his sternum, allowing her tongue to lave at the hot skin in front of her. The moment her mouth burned across his chest, his hips sharply jerked upwards, and his hands, as if floundering for something to do or hold onto, flew to his sides, gripping the sheets.

Zelda chuckled, admiring the Champion’s reaction before she continued meandering down his form. She poked her tongue out to trace the many scars and lines of muscular definition, something she found she quite enjoyed doing, before pausing where blond hair trailed down below his shorts. Where his hip bones jut out, a defined V shape cut down to his groin, and she made sure to place a kiss on each point while her hands trailed down his sides and passed over his waist.

He moaned softly when her breath ghosted across the hem of his boxers, followed shortly by another small thrust upwards. Link panted now, his eyes half-lidded as his mind fogged watching the gorgeous blonde peek up at him from below her eyelashes as she suckled on the skin near the only clothing that kept his decency. But then again, nothing about this was decent, really.

The Princess’s right hand trailed down, and she sat back a little in order to give herself space. Her fingers traced the V as it carved downwards, and even though there was a small amount of irritation that came with running her hand over cloth instead of skin when she caught the edge of his shorts, the small noise he let out as she brushed the outline of his erection made it worth it. 

Again, his hips jerked up, and she grinned wolfishly at his reaction. “Eager, are you not?”

Link didn’t dignify that with a response, only fisting harder into the sheets at his sides in his rough grasp. Part of Zelda envied those sheets, wishing he were gripping onto her instead, but that wasn’t what this was about.

Her finger circled his tip through the thin cloth barrier, and the knight choked out a hiss. He was very much full-mast at this point, and it greatly pleased her that she was able to have such a striking effect on the Champion. Sometimes it was hard to forget that beneath the hard surface of the soldier there was a human person, and it could only be seen so rawly like this as he was splayed out beneath her and more or less at her mercy. 

A hand smoothly spread across his covered length, firmly stroking upwards, and he positively whined. One of his fists uncurled, and he reached for her arm. Zelda quickly looked up, worried that she may have pushed him too far, but could only shudder as his half-lidded eyes bore the most intense of pleas, his mouth slightly ajar and gasping for air. He let go, and his hand came up to his chest, circling in a clockwise direction from where she sat. _Please._

Her lips curled into a smile, and she triumphantly repeated her action before, satisfied with how his head fell back again and his hand trembled slightly. She continued to tease him in this manner for an amount of time that was probably a little cruel, drinking in every twitch of muscle under her careful ministrations. With every stroke, his knuckles blanched whiter with his grip on the sheets, and as his chest heaved several minutes later while her finger pushed down and forwards against his slit, she decided he had had enough.

Link almost sobbed when he was freed from the uncomfortable confines of his shorts, and he was all too eager to lift his hips and help her shuck the offensive garment. She chuckled, and he felt like maybe he should be embarrassed, but the Champion couldn’t bring himself to care. Nothing was more important than the warm palm wrapping around his shaft, chasing the feeling and wishing she had more of a grip.

His eyes slipped closed, and he did his best to focus on his breathing, his mind turning to mush, and he didn’t think he would be capable of coherency for a good long while. His ears twitched at the sound of rustling against the sheets, but he couldn’t think about it. With his body on fire the way that it was, chasing the only sensation that was seeming to register in his brain, and the branding touch of her hand on his length, he could only moan and take it. Everything was too much, but not enough. Something in the back of his mind desired something simply out of his reach, craving the molten heat of her body against his own, but his hips only stuttered further into her loose grasp.

Suddenly, though, something else was added. It surprised him at first, not immediately recognizing the foreign sensation of hot wetness as it ran up the thick vein on the underside of his member, and his eyes flew open. The Princess stared up at him through thick eyelashes, the doe-eyedness of her expression sending him to new levels of pleasure.

She placed a gentle kiss right next to his slit, and Link keened when her lips enveloped the head the next moment.

Shit. _Shit._ He wasn’t going to last. All over again, he was overwhelmed. The blistering warmth of her mouth as she gently suckled, the impossible softness of the inside of her cheeks, the way her hand stroked his base when she ventured further down - it was all too much. Still, though, he found himself teetering on the edge. Well, holding onto it was more accurate now. Link wouldn’t let himself come in her mouth. He wouldn’t defile her in that way. So instead of falling over into the abyss with the promise of immense pleasure, he reluctantly grabbed the ledge as his hands flew to her hair.

Tapping her twice on the head took every ounce of willpower he had left, forcing his hands to grapple and anchor into her hair to stop himself from signaling anything more. Three taps or more was reserved for bad things, after all, and this was so, so far from bad. 

“Ze-” Her name died in his throat when she didn’t respond to his warnings, but the sound of the first few letters of her name had her glaring up at him. He watched her pupils dilate and her brow furrow, a moan echoing from her.

The sound brought with it vibrations that Link found himself wholly underprepared for, though, and he rapidly tried to pull her off of him as he desperately clung onto the next few seconds. The second she was off, he grunted violently, his body shaking as his release consumed him not a moment too soon.

Zelda hadn’t been ready to hear her name start to come out of his mouth, and in hindsight maybe she should have been a little kinder to him from the start. When he had all but yanked her off, she was worried that she had done something wrong. A morbid curiosity had taken her over, and she had ignored his warnings in favor of the pursuit of knowledge, but now she could only clench her eyes shut as ribbons of white cum shot out from the trembling warrior beneath her and directly onto her cheeks and face. Most of it landed on her cheekbones, but the rest had caught along her jaw and by her chin.

When it was over, she watched fascinatedly as he came down, his body twitching as residual shocks of pleasure raced down his spine. A part of her felt disappointed that he hadn’t cum into her mouth, but she figured that she had enough of a sample on her face now. 

Zelda’s tongue swiped up the data, and was immediately greeted by an unpleasantly salty, diluted flavor with the viscous texture of warm snot. She resisted the urge to spit it out, but swallowed it without much further exploration.

Link’s eyes cracked just in time to get a glimpse of the Princess sticking her tongue out and licking some of his release from the side of her mouth, and he would have come back to life right there again if he hadn’t just fallen down that crevice so hard not even a minute ago.

It took all of three seconds before the Champion registered that he had finished on her face, because she watched as his face went from blissful post-orgasm laxness to sheer, unbridled horror and embarrassment. No one in Hyrule had sat up so quickly in their life, she was sure, and she couldn’t stop the laugh that tore from her mouth as he floundered for something to use to wipe her off.

“It is alright,” she giggled, trying her best not to pity him too much as he launched his body out of the bed to grab a cloth out of the washroom directly next to them.

He didn’t respond to that, only hurrying back over to wipe away the semen from her pretty face with a grimace.

 _I am so sorry,_ he signed quickly, his hands flying over gestures that were too quick to piece together. _I tried… I tapped twice, and you did not- I tried and you-_

“Hey,” she gently held up her own hands to lower his, trying to calm him down. “I am sorry if it made you uncomfortable. I was just curious, is all. I should have told you.”

His face was redder than voltfruit, and she smiled lovingly at him.

“And no apologising,” Zelda added quickly, leaning in to press a kiss against his lips. He hesitated, but melted into her touch as he alway did, his right hand smoothing up her neck and resting his fingers just behind her ear as his thumb stroked mindless patterns into the skin just below it. “Besides,” she whispered, nuzzling into the side of his head so her lips pressed against the cartilage of his ear. “I kind of liked it.”

Her chest was pressed against his like this, crawling up over top of him in this way, and she felt his heart rate spike so quickly she worried for his health.

“You seemed to like that too, right?” She asked, wishing the shake of her voice would disappear. Regardless, though, she felt him shudder beneath her, and the hand he had by her ear brushed her hair to the side so he could latch onto the skin of her neck. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”

Zelda thought she had regained his interest, and planned on continuing with her list of ideas then, but was interrupted when she was abruptly pushed back. Link hovered over her with a hungry desire in his eyes, his pupils so dilated that the rush of blue that usually encaptured her in his gaze was barely visible. She was again surprised by his short refractory period, noticing as he positioned himself in between her legs as she was crawled on top of that he was hardening by the moment.

She had been right in her earlier predictions that her own arousal would eventually become hard to ignore, because her core ached with her negligence, and it almost irritated her that she couldn’t rub her legs together with his knee wedged between her thighs like this. 

Link seemed like he was looking for payback, though, because even as she desperately wiggled herself such that she could grind down against his leg, he would pull it back just out of her reach. The whine of protest that left her throat was sharp and needy, but the Champion silenced her by taking her wrists and pinning them above her head.

“Link,” she gasped as he held her there with a gentle grasp in one hand and began tugging at her tunic with the other. As it loosened against her frame, untucking from the trousers, she sat up to help him rip it over her head before she was pushed back down against the sheets.

His grip left her wrists, and she thought for a moment he was relinquishing that power, but her eyes snapped to his simple sign, a rush of liquid heat rushing to gather between her legs. _Stay._

The fact that he had let her go meant that he was under the impression she would obey him, but she decided that was something to explore another day. Besides, even though she had resisted authority throughout her life, this one was… exciting. It was trusting, and loving, and more than anything else hot. It brought a fresh new wave of neediness to take her over as she again attempted to grind against his knee between her legs, but whimpered when she was denied for the fourth time.

Zelda felt like crying when his knee moved back again, craving relief so badly that she considered moving her hand down to rub herself through her trousers herself. But the consequences of that was not something she was about to explore, especially when the Champion had as dangerous a look in his eye as he did now. Not that it was actual danger, but it was something possessive and hungry - a predator playing with his food - and it sent a shiver that traveled from the top of her spine to curl in her toes.

Link’s hands were everywhere. They were brushing against her arms, her shoulders, over the swell of breasts still confined within her brassiere, and dipped down to smoothe over her abdomen before teasingly running back up her sides. His hands filled with the silken fabric of the binding material that covered her chest, and he groped her through it despite the stiff nature of it. Her back arched off the bed, and she whimpered when a thumb brushed over where her nipple was, gasping his name.

Mercifully, he made quick work of the brassiere, untying it only enough to pull from her frame roughly without damaging it. She cried out desperately as it brushed against the stiff peaks of her chest as it was taken away, and she panted dazedly as Link sat back to drink in the sight before him.

The Princess was sprawled out for him like a meal, her hands obediently still above her head and clenched into the fabric. Her eyes were half-lidded, staring up at them with dilated pupils and a foggy expression. Jaw slack, her mouth hung open a little to let out little pants, her breasts rising and falling with the same cadence. Beneath him, she trembled a little, but whether it was from desperation or simply being under his scrutiny was something he couldn’t decipher. A throaty groan ripped out of the Champion, his eyes sweeping across the scape of exposed skin and the marks that were still left behind from their previous coupling in Hateno. 

She looked like she was his. _His_ marks.

He couldn’t hold back at that point, diving down to attach his mouth and place open-mouthed kisses against the top of both of her breasts. Again, her back arched, and it only served to press him harder against her. His hands gripped her sides possessively, his thumbs brushing against the side of her breasts as he continued to mouth down the line of soft cleavage. 

Zelda expected his mouth to travel right to the epicenter of one of her breasts, and she was so, so ready to experience the searing heat of his mouth against the sensitive peaks, but the sensation never came, and she almost wailed. 

“Please,” she whined lowly, her hips thrusting up against nothing. Everything ached, and he was outright refusing to address the simplest of fixes for it. She felt the Champion’s lips curl into a dangerous smile, and maybe she should have been mad for it, but all she could do was shiver.

Finally, _finally,_ his hot, wet tongue slid over one of her nipples, pert from the waiting she had been doing, and Zelda nearly sobbed. She wanted desperately to thread her fingers into his hair - to hold him to her chest and never to let go, but she was determined to keep them in place and concede to his wishes. He pulled the peak into his mouth, sucking gently on her, and her back arched even further.

“Please,” she breathed, abandoning her attempts to rub her core against him as her legs trembled from the futility of it. “I- I need…” The words were lost to her, her mind empty of all things except for the tingles of pleasure that raced up her spine with every flick of his tongue.

Zelda fought the urge to scream when he detached from her, but could only whimper as his hands replaced what his mouth was doing before. He kneaded the globes of her chest, tweaking her nipples as his mouth traveled farther down her body, and she shivered with the anticipation that it brought. She expected him to come off of her after placing open-mouthed butterfly kisses across the expanse of her abdomen, and shook violently as he continued. The roughness of his palms against the soft skin of her breasts was the only thing keeping her coherency far enough away to prevent her from asking what he was doing.

But when his breath fanned out across her moist folds, she whimpered. Palms drifted from her chest to her hips, taking her into a grasp that she doubted she would be able to escape. Not that she wanted to. In fact, that was the farthest thing from her mind. 

She keened when the flat of Link’s tongue pressed against her lower lips, and she fought the urge to close her legs at the foregin sensation. As it passed over her clit, though, she whined lowly as her hands curled into fists into the sheets above her head. His fingers pet her gently at her hips, and she was reduced to panting and releasing little moans that only spurred him further on as he explored what he could do with her like this. 

Her taste was something he hadn’t entertained the thought of before, but as he took taste after taste, the Champion found that there was nothing better. He gently suckled on the sensitive nub, recalling through foggy thoughts that this was what brought her to squirm, and he was not disappointed when she groaned. The sound of her voice was melodic and beautiful as it was now, and it only stroked the dangerous famine that settled in his gut. It drove him to seek out more of it, and he found himself running his tongue through the flesh near her entrance.

The moment she was penetrated, Zelda could only gasp his name, clenching her eyes shut as her muscles contracted around what had entered her. It moved in an unfamiliar way, and she was left to simply take it as one of his thumbs drifted down to thumb at her clit. She was assaulted with stimuli, and it was all she could do to grind down onto the sensation, desperately chasing a release that was getting closer and closer by the moment. At some point his mouth and hand switched places, and suddenly there were two fingers within her instead of his tongue. The rough pads of his fingers scraped against her walls, and as they plunged into her and crooked in a way he knew she liked, she threw her head back.

A rough suck on the little bundle of nerves was the only thing it took, and she came crashing down by clamping onto his fingers as they continued their onslaught within her as she writhed. Link helped her ride through each intense wave of pleasure, determined to lap up enough of her orgasm to cover his tongue. When she began to whimper and squirm under his touch he pulled away, and was surprised when Zelda grabbed him by the back of the neck as he sat up to bring him down for a searing kiss. 

He shook off the initial shock, angling his head as his tongue burst through her lips and tangled with his own. 

“Don’t stop,” she whispered when they briefly separated, panting as their half-lidded eyes stared into each other’s. As if to make her point, the Princess’s legs curled around his waist, her ankles hooking just above the swell of his rear, and he smirked at her.

His hands ran up her body, pushing her arms back over her head with mirth as she realized she had forgotten where they were supposed to be. He released her there the same way he had done last time, and used his right to take himself into his hand. The intensity of that alone made him grit his teeth and grip himself at the base. The Champion was determined to make this last. 

Slowly, he positioned himself at her entrance, his lips crushing against hers once again as he allowed his hips to pitch forwards. Zelda whined when he slipped, the underside of his member rubbing through her folds and against her clit briefly. Both of them moaned, Link detaching from her to drop his head to her shoulder with a broken groan. 

This time he didn’t let go of himself until he was breaching her entrance, and the Princess gasped at the feeling of his blunt tip splitting her open. She realized, in a brief moment of clarity, that she hadn’t been properly stretched, because as he pushed in slowly the burn was more intense than normal. In retaliation, her walls closed around him even as he was only a little over an inch inside, becoming a vice that made Link let out an almost pained noise.

“S-sorry,” Zelda whimpered, doing her best to relax as her walls fluttered around him, eager to feel the overwhelming sensation of being full once more. 

Link only grunted, planting a lazy kiss against the side of her neck as he pushed forward once more. Her insides clamped down again, and he grit his teeth as he continued, willing himself not to finish right there.

Thankfully he held on, and as his hips finally met her and he slipped to the hilt, they both let out equally satisfied noises, taking a moment to relish in the feeling. Zelda felt the burn subside a little, panting into the shell of his ear as he kissed along her throat. His hands detached from her own to run comfortingly up and down her sides, thumbs drifting over her breasts and to brush over her nipples. 

The Champion sat there for a moment, allowing her time to get used to the feeling, but when he didn’t budge as she wiggled her hips, she grew impatient. She tried again, this time with more conviction, but he only held her tighter to him and groan.

“Link-” she gasped, bucking up into him. “Fucking- _move!_ ”

As if punched in the gut, he snapped backwards, grunting softly as he pulled halfway out before slamming home in one swift motion. As their skin slapped against each other, Zelda heard herself cry out, her heels digging into his lower back. She sought his lips, nuding his head to angle right against hers so she could comfortably feel his tongue slide across the roof of her mouth and tangle with her own as he repeated his action again, gradually accelerating in pace.

Her high-pitched whines were swallowed by the man above her, and eventually she tipped her head back to let him continue his attentions to her neck as his hands drifted over her chest and gently squeezed her breasts. With every thrust, she met his efforts, their hearts in tandem as they slammed against their rib cages. Quiet words of encouragement were whispered into his hair as he attached his mouth to her chest once more, his lips just barely ghosting against her skin as he furrowed his brow to focus on the movement of his pelvis.

Her toes began to curl as the cord in her belly coiled tighter and tighter, and she keened when he sucked one of the peaks of her breast into his mouth, guiding toward the enticing ledge of release. Without the capability of words, the Princess could only beg incoherently as she desperately clawed her way towards her pending orgasm, and it was with this that he suddenly grabbed the backs of her thighs.

With a grunt, he pushed them forward, thanking the goddesses for her inherent flexibility, and the shift of movement forced her to take him at a different angle that caused him to stab a particularly good spot within her with every forward pitch of his hips. Her hands flew to his shoulders, her nails digging in as her toes curled and her legs tightened around him, inner walls clamping down onto his length within her.

Link’s hips stuttered and he grunted primally, gritting his teeth as he focused on maintaining his momentum. As Zelda rode out her release, he continued to pound into her, and it wasn’t long before his movements began to stutter. Hazy but still a little coherent, she did her best to flex her inner muscles, and he nearly crushed her as he fell to one of his elbows with a groan. His hips flexed backwards, almost trembling as he did, and she immediately brought one of her hands down from his shoulder to bring him to his own completion.

It was the last time she would have to do this for at least a few days, she thought as she stroked him quickly and evenly, her knight panting into her neck. Link thrust maybe four more times into her tight grasp before he really did fall onto her this time, biting onto the crook of her shoulder as ribbons of cum shot out of his length. His moan was long, but somewhat mournful somehow, and she combed a hand through his hair as he prolonged the pleasure coursing through his system with short forward motions. The Princess didn’t let him go until she was sure he was done and pulling away from her, rolling onto his back at her side as his lungs sucked in long, heavy breaths.

She smiled, brushing her bangs back from her forehead as she rolled onto her side and gazed at him with a big smile. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, unable to contain the short huff of a laugh that left him at her expression.

“Feel awake?” Zelda teased.

 _The opposite, actually._ His hands dropped onto his chest, and he laid there for a moment before flexing his abdominal muscles and curled upwards into a sitting position. She watched as he swiped up the towel he had around his hips, and she raised a brow.

When he lifted it up to clean her, she pulled away. “That thing is no longer clean,” she said primly. “It was around your waist and you used it to dry yourself off.”

 _If I am clean when the towel dries me, how can the towel be dirty?_ His face was deadpan.

“Go get another,” she laughed, swatting his leg. 

The Champion rolled his eyes affectionately, a smile tugging at his lips as he turned towards the washroom door. Shortly after he came back out, holding not only a damp washcloth, but also a small cup of water that she wondered where he had gotten from. Regardless, it was accepted gratefully into her hands, and she drank half of it as he gently wiped her down before offering him the rest. He took it, downing whatever was left, then wiping the back of his mouth with his wrist.

“So that tea worked,” she hummed after they had been fully clothed again, and she was cradled in his arms as she read the book she had brought with her from his home.

He was reading over her shoulder, but pressed occasional kisses to the shell of her ear. Link hummed passively in response.

“We should get a stock of Drowsy Valerian. I know we do not come by here often, but it would be good to have anyway.”

 _As you wish,_ he signed, dropping his hands to squeeze her midsection.

A comfortable silence passed over them as Zelda turned the page, absorbing the story before her. It wasn’t anything truly captivating - she enjoyed nonfiction much more than she did this, but she wasn’t about to find enjoyment in reading the only tome she brought with them containing the information on the herbs, so this would have to do.

“We should get out of this room,” she concluded quietly, glancing at him from the side. “The children were a little disappointed that you left them without saying anything yesterday, and neither of us have eaten anything since last night.”

As if on cue, his stomach growled, and he chuckled sheepishly as the tips of his ears blushed an attractive pink.

 _What time is it?_ He asked.

Zelda pulled the Sheikah Slate from off the coffee table beside them, turning it over to face her correctly and tapped its screen. The map lit up, and she looked at the bottom right. “About three in the afternoon.”

Her knight groaned. _It feels like we were just out getting the herbs._

She laughed airily, setting the Slate down. “How are your wounds, by the way?”

_Probably healed by now._

The Princess scoffed. “It is still hard to believe those elixirs are so… perfectly uncomplicated. You would think that there would be a limit. What were the contents of the one you took?”

Link paused thoughtfully. _Moblin Horns and… Hearty Lizards, I think._

Zelda gagged, and her knight chuckled. _It does not taste as bad as it sounds._

“Dare I ask just what exactly it does taste like?” 

_Do you want to try one?_

“Not in the slightest.”

_And here I thought you were a scientist._

“I am a scientist!”

_A coward too, apparently._

“Oh- just give me one!”

Link laughed when she jabbed him in the side, squirming away from her playful touch. He leaned over, snatching his satchel that leaned up against the wardrobe, and dug through it. He pulled out a blood red elixir, and she glared at it.

“Is this one made of the same stuff?”

_I rarely use anything else to make these health elixirs._

“Really? Even when you are low on supplies? What about when you run out of Moblin Horns?”

Link raised a brow. _I never run out of Moblin Horns._

“And Hearty Lizards?”

_Need you ask?_

The thought of him chasing after the blue creatures throughout Akkala amused her greatly, and she giggled. “So you are saying you have some with you now?”

 _Of course._ He paused, and Zelda’s face twisted with disgust as he pulled out three very dead hearty lizards from his satchel. 

“How… how old are those?” She asked hesitantly.

The Champion’s brow furrowed. _I do not know. Maybe a few weeks?_

“You keep weeks-old dead lizards in your satchel?” 

_You are avoiding your original actions._ He threw the lizards back into the satchel and thrust the elixir into her face. _Drink,_ he demanded.

Zelda wasn’t exactly sure she wanted to anymore, knowing now what went into them. “H-how can you be sure this is safe? I mean, I am not hurt, and… and what if the age of the ingredients affects its function?”

_If it were unsafe, I would have died when I drank mine earlier._

She couldn’t argue with that. She took it reluctantly, grimacing at its odorlessness when she sniffed its contents. Link stared at her sternly. “Alright, alright, I get it. Look, here, I am drinking it.”

The moment she tipped the bottle back and the slightly syrupy consistency of the liquid hit her lips she recoiled a little. Unsure of what she expected, it was safe to say she was rather surprised when it was almost entirely tasteless. _Almost,_ only because of its heavy texture, and the fact that it reminded her greatly of saliva given that it was lukewarm. 

“Goddesses,” she rasped, swallowing her mouthful. “Its underwhelmingness somehow made that experience all the worse.”

He took the bottle back, chuckling as its cork was screwed back on. _See? Not that bad._

“Does anything really happen if you are not hurt and you drink this stuff?”

_Not that I know of. It was kind of like when I tried a tireless frog on its own for the first time._

Her eyes bulged. “You actually tried it? Did it do anything? What effects did it have?”

 _None on its own,_ he laughed, pushing her back as she advanced at him with the glitter of the hunger for knowledge in her eyes. _Also rather slimy._

“Did you take your heart rate before and after? Had you eaten before you ate the frog? How long before? How many hours of sleep had you gotten?” 

Link lifted a hand to stop her, chuckling nervously as he crawled backwards.

It took him all of five minutes to fend off her questions, saved by the sudden sound of clacking against the side of the building beside the window. They shared a curious glance before coming up to the glass, staring out as a small pebble flew towards the outside of the window, barely missing the panes. They both flinched away from where the pebble may have hit instinctively, regardless of the barrier between them, and the pebble clattered down to the ground after another clack. 

Koko and Cottla were standing side by side. The former was providing her sister with ammunition, and Cottla had her tongue sticking out as she aimed. Another was pelted, and Zelda was about to wave her off from taking such reckless actions lest the glass break, but found herself without need to as the innkeeper marched out of the front door and shooed the children away with a scalding glare.

Zelda and her knight giggled, and they both threw their cloaks onto their backs as they began to make their way out of the inn. The Princess resolved to give the children a stern talking to about the dangerous of throwing rocks at windows, but Link convinced her not to after he fitted his gauntlets to his forearms, telling her that they had more than likely received enough of a chastisement from the innkeeper. They descended the stairs noisily, and the woman behind the counter gave them both a kind smile as they returned it politely. Link held the door as she went through, and she felt affection swell in her chest.

“Thank you,” she said, slipping through the doorframe.

 _Of course,_ he signed, bowing dutifully. 

“There they are, there they are!” A voice chimed from around one of the other house’s corners. “I told you they’d get our message; I _told_ you!”

Once they got close enough to figure out who it was, it was no surprise to see Cottla and Koko’s beaming faces. “Hello, you two,” Zelda greeted cheerfully, unable to resist the urge to lean down a little at the cute kids’ faces.

Koko looked away shyly, but Cottal continued her typical hyper chattiness. “Hi, Princess! Hi, Princess! We were hoping that you’d wanna play!”

The woman laughed, amused by the youth’s ability to make her tone of voice one where she had exclamation points at the end of every sentence. She exchanged a pensive glance at Link, who was now crouched down next to her. “I do not know,” Zelda drawled. “What kind of game would we play?”

“Koko and Cottla wanted to play hide and seek,” Koko said, lifting her chin and meeting the Princess’s gaze timidly. “Koko also wanted Master Link to try her new recipe.”

Link huffed out a chuckle, landing a gloved hand on top of the young girl’s head and patting it affectionately. He and Zelda shared one last look before turning back to the children and nodding. “So what are the rules?” she asked.

Cottla gasped. “You’ve never played hide and seek before, Miss Princess?”

She had indeed played hide and seek before. Many times, actually, when she was a child. Mostly with her handmaidens though, and the ones who used to be in charge of entertaining her before she learned about her destiny and began her training. Just to humor the girl, though, she shook her head. “I am sure you play it differently here than at the castle, and it has been so long since I have last played it that I am afraid my memory is a little foggy. Would you mind explaining the way it is played?”

“It’s suuuuper easy,” Cottla said, holding up her fingers. “There are only five rules! One: You have to stay in the village. Two: When you’re hiding, you can’t move from your spot after the time is up. Three: If you’re counting, you can’t look - not even peek through your fingers, and you can’t count super fast or super slow. Four: The first person found has to be the next seeker. Five: You can’t hide in the same place twice.”

When the girl was done speaking, the Princess nodded sagely, Link chuckling at her for it. “How long will each round last?”

Koko hummed. “Ten minutes? Koko doesn’t think it’ll be very fun to sit for longer than that in one place if someone is not found by the seeker.”

“And if the seeker finds no one?”

Cottla frowned. “Seeker goes again, then.”

“Sounds like we have our rules set, then,” Zelda said, crossing her arms as she put on a cocky grin. “Who shall seek first?”

“Koko will!” Koko cheered, her hand shooting straight into the air. “Koko _loves_ seeking. Koko’s also very good at it, so make sure you hide super well!”

“How long do we have?” The Princess asked.

“Sixty seconds,” Cottla said as Koko crouched down, closed her eyes, and cupped her face in her hands.

“Sixty,” Koko began, and the others shared a look. “Fifty-nine-”

The hiders all dispersed, Zelda and Link rushing off down the path. She laughed at how serious he was taking this, breaking into a full sprint for a few steps with a grin as he pulled her along.

“This defeats the purpose of the game! We should hide separately,” she hissed as they brushed past the clothing store, waving at Claree as they raced by. He ignored her, simply beaming as he dragged her towards Smelly Mellie’s house, and ducked behind a few crates.

Link lifted a finger to his lips, shushing her before peeking over the wooden boxes. Koko was undoubtedly still counting, and Zelda was a little impressed that she was able to count backwards from sixty so well considering her age. 

Zelda lifted her hands. _Hear me?_

 _Yes, but it is much more fun this way,_ Link reasoned with a childish, toothy grin. 

“Zero!” Koko called suddenly. “Koko’s coming for you!”

 _See? And now we cannot move anyway,_ the knight laughed silently.

 _Hope she finds Cottla first,_ Zelda signed, chuckling herself.

Cottla was indeed found first, and the second round the two didn’t hide together. Link was found first, then, much to Zelda’s chagrin, used the rooftops to find her. Several accusations of cheating later, and a rule was added that the seeker was not allowed to find vantage points other than at the top of the hill. Link argued that he was simply taking advantage of his skillsets, but was promptly shut down by the rest of the group.

Three rounds later and Link was once again found first, and the Princess had a feeling that maybe he was just humoring the girls since she knew how the Champion was only seen or heard when he wanted to be. Either way, it made for a fun game, and the best part about it was getting to watch him grab up and swing around Cottla who was the second to be found only after Zelda, who hadn’t been decisive enough, and had run out of time while she was standing in front of a shop.

“Let me go, let me go!” Cottla squealed as she was grabbed up under her arms and swung around, her face split into the widest, purest beam she had ever seen. “I’m gonna get dizzy!”

He propped the Sheikah child onto his shoulders, grinning up at her as she took hold of his ponytail. With small hands, she gripped tightly at it, and Link grimaced slightly.

When the girls became bored of hide and seek, Koko pulled on the knight’s arm, dragging him over to the local cooking pot and sitting them all down in front of it, insisting that this latest recipe was something they’d be sure to love. 

Link helped her with cutting the vegetables, but kept his hands off where he could so she could demonstrate what she’d learned since he last tasted her cooking. Zelda found herself wondering how often he was treated to a meal those years ago. Not that she had met a child who hadn’t loved her personal guard, but these girls seemed particularly close with him. 

It was cute.

A delicious meat pie was handed to her not long later, second only to Link’s whose cooking was almost always flawless, and she moaned as she took the first bite. “Koko, I think your dreams of becoming a chef have already come true.”

“You think so?” The child gasped, a smile spreading across her face. “Koko is glad that the Princess likes her cooking!”

Link supported her with a thumbs up, half of his pie already gone. After they ate, Koko insisted that she handle the dishes, and Cottla helped her when the stack began tilting a little precariously in her hands. Cado fetched for the girls not long after, thanking the two for keeping an eye on and entertaining them for a while.

“They get to be a lot sometimes, and with my job as a guard, it’s hard to keep them in check,” the greying man admitted, scooping Cottla up into his arms. “Thank you.”

Zelda wouldn’t admit that it was one of her favorite things watching Link play with children, so she waved her hand and blushed. “It is no problem. We had fun. Right, girls?”

“Yeah!” They both agreed. 

Koko peered up at the Champion, regarded him for a moment, then tugged on his sleeve. She had grabbed his attention when she had started looking, but he stooped down to her level for a moment. “Was the pie really okay?”

He smiled softly, mussed her hair in his palm, and nodded. The Princess noticed the affectionate way he tilted his head as he did this, a little like how dogs would when their name was called.

“Alright, kiddos,” Cado said, heaving Koko up onto his shoulders. “Who’s ready for a story?”

Link recalled amusedly how Cado always read to them at the same time each day, and chuckled to himself as the girls once again cheered, and the guard turned away to head towards the hill that led to the shrine.

Catching the Princess’s attention with a quick tap on her arm, he raised his hands. _We should bid Impa goodnight._

“And Paya,” Zelda reminded him gently, and she watched his eyes flicker before nodding resolutely.

They were warmly received at the village head’s door, and were somehow goaded into coming in for a spot of tea. Impa asked them if they would care to have any dinner, but they both declined, still full of the fabulous meat pie that Koko had made for them.

Zelda watched as Link scanned the room they settled into, noting with bittersweetness that he was looking for Paya. Upon asking her whereabouts, Impa explained that she had gone off to visit a friend just outside of Kakariko Village. 

“Do you know if she will return by tomorrow?” The Princess asked, the empty teacup clutched in her hands.

“She said she would be back within the week.”

Zelda sighed. “I was hoping to get a chance to say goodbye before we head back for Hateno Village.”

“You are already leaving?” Impa asked, then sighed. “I suppose your vacation from your duties could not have lasted forever. It would have been nice to have you here for longer, though.”

“Forgive us, we will try to visit more often. The truth is, there are only three days left of this little vacation before we ought to be on our way to the Gerudo Desert, and it would be cruel of us not to at least touch base with Purah once before we head out.”

The old woman smiled, her eyes crinkling. “Worry not, young one. I will relay your goodbye to Paya upon her return. I assume that means you will be leaving tomorrow morning?”

Zelda turned to her knight, who only stared back at her. She wasn’t sure why she turned to him for his opinion - he never had one. Her head fixated on the Sheikah elder again, and nodded. “That would be ideal, yes. If Purah is anything like she always is, we will need at least two days to entertain her, and having one day of relaxation without being prodded and tested before we head out to the hottest province in the continent would be preferable.”

“Being a woman of science such as yourself, Your Highness, I would have thought you would enjoy such activities.”

“Somehow Purah takes them a step further.” The Princess’s chuckle was dry, and Link cringed inwardly as he looked away, trying not to recall the ‘tests’ she had run on him a year after reuniting with the Princess.

Impa laughed, shaking her head. “I wish you luck, then.”

As Zelda and Link stood, Link collected their teacups and brought them into the kitchen, switching the basin on and a soft clinking of the glass could be heard as he washed them. The Princess stretched her arms over her head, glancing out the window to her side. The sun had not fully disappeared, leaving just enough to cast a haze of deep purples, oranges, and blues across the sliver of horizon she could see through the crack in the cliffs that parted for the path out of the village.

“I love this time of day,” a raspy voice said behind her, and she turned to see Impa softly padding over to join her as she stared out the window. “The sun truly paints a magnificent picture.”

“Yes,” Zelda agreed breathily, her eyes returning to the window. “Yes it does.”

There was a beat of silence, the only sounds flitting through the air the ones coming from the kitchen, but Impa was the one to break it. Her voice was low, but not in a whisper. Measured carefully as if someone might hear even though there were only the three of them in the house. “I sent some warriors out to collect information about a week ago.” 

The Princess’s eyes widened, and they flicked down to the old woman’s form. Her gaze was returned intensely, the seriousness of the matter weighing heavily on the previously light atmosphere.

“They only returned today, so I am glad to be able to relay the information to you before you headed out.”

“What did they find?” Zelda asked carefully with baited breath.

“I sent out three in total, but only one returned,” Impa said, her eyes moving out to the sunset before them. “They were not my finest warriors, and had I known I was sending two of them to their deaths I would not have sent them at all.”

The Princess swallowed thickly, shivering at the thought that what King Dorephan had simply named ‘opposition’ was capable of murder. “Impa,” she tried again. “What did they find?”

The Sheikah woman sighed deeply. “The one that returned had his tongue cut out. It took several hours to calm him down enough for him to write something on a sheet of paper.” A wrinkled hand lifted to slip into her robe, and a folded piece of bloodied paper was pulled out. It was crumpled and stained brownish red, and Zelda hesitated when it was offered to her. 

She shakily reached for it, unable to bring herself to open it immediately. Instead, she swallowed the lump in her throat. “Why did you not mention this when we arrived here first?”

Impa cast a side glance at her. “I thought it best to tell you on your own first. Perhaps this vacation of yours was ill-timed, but you could not have known.”

Zelda cast a glance over her shoulder, the paper still folded in her hand. The sound of water running still rang out, and she wondered if he had busied himself with another task given the fact that cleaning teacups should not take this long. It wasn’t lost on her that Impa must have also waited for her knight not to be present to share this information with her. 

“Is there a reason you have left Link out of this conversation?” The Princess began carefully. “If we are dealing with a group so dangerous, would it not be in our best interest to let my personal guard know?”

“After watching that boy implode the way he did two years ago, I do not trust him not to do the same right now,” Impa explained. “He means well, I know, but hearing this news from you will undoubtedly bring about a much more ideal reaction.”

The woman paused briefly, her shoulders lifting and falling with a deep breath. “After all,” the Sheikah continued, “I was the one to damn him with the legend that he was supposed to follow suit in. For once, I would very much like not to be the one to deliver the bad news.”

Zelda fingered the edge of the piece of paper delicately, then with a burst of courage fit her finger under the corner of one of the folded pages. As it opened, there was only one word scrawled across it. 

Amongst blood stains and bleeding ink from a brush held too tightly and swiped across the paper too violently, four scratchy letters burned through the middle of the parchment.

_Yiga._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like I was using a scapegoat by using the Yiga as the bad guys because it just seemed like the most obvious answer. I remember that I rewrote this chapter a few times a few weeks ago, but settled on this after all, even though I'm not completely satisfied with it. Hopefully it doesn't ruin anything for you. Hope you enjoyed :).
> 
> PS, these are prewritten chapters as I have temporarily stopped writing. It is worth mentioning that I have 1-2 more chapters prewritten that will be posted, but I've stopped writing for the time being. I will continue this upload schedule, but if I run out of material before I start writing again, the series will go into a hiatus. Unfortunately, I've just lost all the motivation to write these two for now (not for lack of interest in the series, but for growing interest in others), so I have set them to the side.


	14. Grim Reminders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't post yesterday as I was busy with (safely!) celebrating Thanksgiving. Next Chapter will be posted on Dec 11, 2020.

The Princess did not sleep well that night. She brewed Link’s herbal tea that put him to sleep, but curling up against his dozing form did not bring as much comfort as it normally did. She woke up several times to creaks of the floorboards, and she had to remind herself that as far as the kingdom knew, she was still in the castle, not in Kakariko Village. Surely if Link hadn’t been passed out like he was under the influence of the herb’s effects he would have woken to her stirring, but as he was now, he was a heavy, grabby, warm slab against her side. 

Fear gripped her in such a way that she was able to keep herself from panicking, but it lingered in the back of her mind.

The only word in the middle of the paper that Impa had slipped her haunted her, and she shivered when she recalled the state of the parchment. Yiga. Link had apparently put an end to their organization about four years ago, but from what she gathered they weren’t a violent group. Of course, they were thieves and miscreants, but they weren’t murderers. 

The thought that whoever was controlling them now had the capacity to turn simple troublemakers into full-on assassins and soldiers was a frightening idea to come to terms with. The silly stories about Link’s encounters with them and Master Kohga were nothing but entertaining to listen to, and learning that their regroupment meant more than just bringing their shenanigans back into the light was more than a little scary. Especially since they were now shedding blood.

The wind whispered against the glass of the inn’s room window, and Zelda’s eyes flicked over to it. Of course, no one was out there, and the only thing she held eye contact briefly with was an owl perched on a lamppost who happened to turn its head towards their window.

Telling Link was the next step in this. He needed to know, especially since they were going to be traveling. She wondered if she should send word to Gerudo Village ahead of time through the mail, but she wasn’t sure if the letter would arrive there any earlier than they would. And surely if they were dealing with the Yiga already, Riju must already be aware of their new agendas. 

For about an hour Zelda toyed with the idea that perhaps they should stay for at least half the day, and see if they could visit the Sheikah warrior who returned. She couldn’t imagine his state of mind, though, after having faced what he had. Eventually, she resolved that it couldn’t hurt to at least try, adding on another thing to talk to her knight about when he finally woke. 

She managed to drift off a few times, but would inevitably wake again. Her restlessness only increased the more she tried, and she opted instead to slither out of the Champion’s grasp and take to writing in her journal. 

Several hours later, before the sun had even cast its muted orange glow, Link roused slightly, sitting upright the moment he didn’t feel the Princess’s weight in his arms. Zelda, having heard him stir, turned around, and was met by the sight of him releasing a breath of relief. 

_Why are you awake?_ He signed, kicking back the sheets and padding towards her. 

“We need to talk,” Zelda said matter-of-factly, having already thought up her plan of telling him what Impa had found ahead of time.

He frowned, crossing his legs a respectful distance behind her so that he was not able to read her journal. 

The Princess grabbed the tunic she had thrown onto the floor upon arriving back at the inn the night before, rifling through the pocket before her fingers touched the cold, folded parchment in one of its pockets. She dug it out, flinching at its sight, then hesitated before offering it to him.

“Before you panic,” she said carefully as he eyed it wearily, “remember that no one is supposed to know that we have actually left the castle.”

His calloused fingers brushed hers as he took the proffered item, the pad of his thumb brushing over the bloodstains as he carefully unfolded it. Observant eyes swept over what was written, flipped the page, then returned to the front again.

“Impa sent out three men to gather information a few weeks ago apparently,” Zelda explained as he regarded each dark red mark. “Only one returned yesterday, and this is all they were able to get out of him, apparently.”

_On paper?_ Link asked.

The Princess paused. “His tongue was cut out.”

She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of his reaction - or rather, lack thereof. His eyes widened a little, but as far as she could tell, he remained perfectly calm.

“Impa was under the impression that the Yiga are the opposition crawling through the continent,” Zelda continued. 

_I thought Riju said that they were just conducting petty theft?_

“Even if it was, it seems there has been a change in agenda. Either way, we should be more weary when we travel. Especially when we head to Gerudo.”

He nodded. _I know a route we can take that is less-traveled. It should not cost us too much time as long as we keep a steady pace._

“That sounds more than ideal. I know our plan was to head out this morning, but I think it worthwhile to see if we can talk to the survivor that returned. Perhaps he will be more willing to offer us information.”

Again, her knight nodded, but his frown only deepened. _Why was I only now told this?_

“Impa worried for you, and I thought it best to let you get a proper night’s sleep before I laid this on you. I hope you understand.”

The formality of this discussion made the atmosphere a little tense, but Link only bowed his head respectfully as he always did. _I am here for your protection. I hope you also understand that being told these things should be the first priority so I can properly uphold my duties._

“Sorry,” Zelda breathed, trying to bring the conversation back to a more casual tone.

His head raised, and his brow furrowed. _Impa worried for me? About what?_

Zelda bit the inside of her cheek. Telling him that the woman was worried that ‘he might explode’ would be a little too harsh and on-the-nose, so she only replied, “That was all she said.”

It was too early to head over to ask the village head where the survivor had been put for now, so they stayed in their room for the next few hours. The Princess finished documenting the past few days into her journal, grateful when Link came over and draped one of his furs over her shoulders and handed her a cup of tea. He assured her that it wasn’t the sleeping aid he had been given before she could ask, and warm, diluted honey washed over her tongue as she took a sip. 

Link checked the contraceptive elixir’s progress with pink cheeks, and determined it satisfactory after a moment of observation. He took this time to get ready, and made sure that her hood was secured across her shoulders as she tightened the laces on her boots. 

_It would be best if we leave Storm here with the villagers for now,_ Link signed after pulling his hair back. _Reede was right in that he is quite recognizable, so it would be better if we double up on Galen. Or we can trade out for another horse from the stables here. Whatever makes you the most comfortable._

Disappointed that her progress from a few days ago would be going to waste, she sighed. “I would rather not take out a strange horse I do not know. If Galen can take the extra weight, I think it best that we both ride him.”

_As you wish. His reply was stiff_ , and the way he was acting much reminded her of the way he was before the Calamity. 

The light of the sun barely crested across the village before they were headed over towards Impa’s house, pausing to talk to Cado and Dorian.

“They would know where he is being kept, wouldn’t they?” Zelda asked as they strode towards the large house. 

_Only one way to find out._

“Good morning, Princess. Good morning, Master Link,” the two greeted in unison, bowing respectfully before returning to their typical stances. 

“Lady Impa has not yet risen, so we ask that you come back later when she has,” Cado said, his eyes softening. 

“We were actually hoping that you might know the answer to our question so we needn’t wait for her,” Zelda explained, her hands clasped politely in front of her. 

Dorian’s face hardened. “Are you referring to what I think you are?” 

Link’s eyes settled on the guardsman. _The survivor. We wish to speak with him._

Cado stiffened. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Your Highness. He was not very stable when we received him, and we barely got a coherent piece of information out of him.”

Link whipped out the parchment from his pocket, his back straightening in a way that demanded attention. _We wish to speak with him,_ he repeated. 

Dorian sighed, his eyes flicking away from the paper. “He is being kept in a makeshift dungeon area currently while we attempt to calm him down. Normally we wouldn’t go to such lengths to imprison one of our own, especially a comrade, but we fear that he may be a danger to the other villagers if he is not contained.”

“And where is this makeshift dungeon?” Zelda asked, ignoring the implied state of the survivor. 

“Past the eastern gate and through the woods along the cliffside. Two guardsmen should be just outside,” Cado finished for his partner.

“Thank you. Both of you,” the Princess said, turning on her heels with her knight just three steps behind her. 

They only made it four paces before Dorian’s voice rang out again. “Your Highness.” When the two turned, his raised hand lowered. “The survivor - his name is Agregor. Please treat him kindly. He has been through a lot.”

She smiled somberly. “Of course.”

The guardsman did not call out to them again as they continued down the path, and Link fell into step with her quickly as they passed through the divided cliffs of the eastern gate.

_It is suspicious that the other two were killed, but he was left alive,_ Link signed as they walked.

“I thought so too. Perhaps to send the message?” Zelda replied, her voice low.

_Why would they expose themselves like that? Would it not be more beneficial to keep themselves hidden until they were able to make a move?_

“Impa’s warriors must have surprised them.”

The knight’s head shook. _For stirring up as much trouble as they have been, I cannot imagine they had not thought that it was bringing attention to themselves._

“Were you not the one that just suggested that they could have waited to make a move?”

_Remaining unknown and staying unseen are different. I believe that they intentionally have made themselves known, but why they have not stayed in the shadows is what confuses me._

“That may be intentional as well.”

_We cannot say for certain until we have more information. We should also take into consideration that what we may hear from Agregor could be planted - made to throw us off._

Zelda hadn’t considered that, but she couldn’t help but see the logic in it.

_In fact,_ Link continued, _I think that it was wholly purposeful that they let him live. Like you said, it was more than likely to deliver the message._

“They cut out his tongue, though, did they not? I cannot think of a more effective way to silence someone.”

He looked at her strangely, waving his hands in front of his face. 

“Oh. I suppose that was foolish to say.”

_In any case,_ the knight continued, _it is very likely that what we can gather will be at most the half-truth, and we should look into what he says thoroughly before drawing any solid conclusions._

“Yes. I can look into getting some of the guard to investigate as well once we get a better handle on how tough these new clan members are. I do not want to send anyone to their deaths, so until more information is gathered, I think it best to hold off.”

Link nodded. _It will be interesting to see how they react._

Zelda frowned. “What do you mean?”

_Well, now that they know that their message is being delivered, I doubt that they will have been expecting that we would withhold from immediately sending more forces after them. If we plan to play the defensive tactics, we should also consider fortifying what we already have. For instance, if we can get a firm hold on the type of combat they specialize in, we can better train the troops to oppose that. However, if they use anything alike what they used to, I think I can get a head start on it._

The way he was talking, it was like he was planning to go to war. The thought shook her frame. Need there be more violence after the Calamity? She couldn’t help but wonder what had prompted the reformation of the Yiga, and if there was something she could have done to prevent it. To her knowledge, she had tried to be as fair and benevolent a ruler as possible - going out of her way to assist in rebuilding her capitol and directly helping her people recover as Hyrule was reconstructed. 

Had she failed?

Had she failed again?

Zelda clenched her jaw. No. There had to be more to it. There was a piece of the puzzle that she was missing. But… what was it?

“If this is the response we get for sending scouts,” she said quietly as they eyed two guardsmen standing watching alongside the cliff, “then I doubt the coronation will do anything.”

Link’s eyes flitted back and forth for a moment, then he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. It slipped off a moment later, his hands rising. _Perhaps if we share this information with the rest of the council they will reconsider your taking the throne._

The Princess laughed dryly, shaking her head. “Even if this were enough to dissuade them, there would be no reason to call off the coronation. I was destined to become queen eventually - putting it off further or moving the date of the one I spent the last two weeks planning would seem irresponsible, and may spur on the opposition.”

Link looked like he had more to say, but they were closing in now on the guardsmen who eyed them as they walked nearer. When one of them recognized Zelda, they quickly elbowed the other and moved aside. 

“Your Highness! We were not expecting you,” one said, his face much resembling a dog, but his eyes warm and friendly. Something not often seen in jail-keepers.

“Forgive the sudden intrusion,” Zelda said, curtseying briefly. “We were informed of Agregor’s return, and we wished to speak with him.”

The guardsmen shared a quick glance at each other, then turned around. Zelda peered between the gap in their shoulders, and almost flinched at the sight before her. The person was frail and skinny, his bony figure draped in scraps of cloth whose itchy satin was stained various shades of red and brown. His skin was dry and cracking all up and down his body, but what disturbed her most was the fact that as her eyes trailed down to his feet, she found that he had no toenails. It was like staring at a decaying body, and he sat there with his head literally hanging, and his arms limp out to the side. He was propped up against the back wall, and his silver hair looked like it had been ripped and shredded - the mess appeared matted and knotted.

She did her best not to reel backwards when the guardsmen stepped reluctantly to the side, and Agregor’s head slowly, agonizingly, lifted. The moment his blood-shot brown eyes met hers, he let out a high-pitched wail, throwing himself backwards against the wall.

This time Link stepped in between them, an arm keeping the Princess behind him as he inserted himself to shield her from the perceived threat. But the man behind the wooden bars was anything but a threat, curling into a ball and tucking himself far into the corner as he wept loudly.

When the knight’s arm finally lowered, and his right hand left the Master Sword’s hilt, Zelda cautiously stepped to the side, reassuring her guard that she was fine when he passed her a cautious sideglance. As Agregor continued to sob hysterically, the Princess turned to the guardsmen who looked deeply uncomfortable. 

“Have you any parchment and a brush with ink?” She asked them calmly, pointedly keeping her tone even and unthreatening. 

The first guard, the one with the face of a dog, nodded quickly, scrambling through a small satchel set off to the side, and handed her the paper and a charcoal pencil. The Princess nodded to them gratefully, then turned her attention back to Agregor whose sobs had somewhat quieted. 

She waited for him to peek out from his arms that covered his face, and she did her best to smile as genuinely as she could. His eyes flicked away, but he did not try to hide again, and he whimpered when she opened her mouth. “Agregor?” She tried cautiously.

His irises ricocheted back to hers, and the deep, hollow gaze burned through her soul. The way his mouth was moving, it was clear that he was trying to make words, and Zelda felt bile rise in her throat when she caught a glimpse of the stub of mutilated tongue left in his mouth.

When nothing coherent left him, he only cried harder, and despite the small traces of fear she couldn’t help but harbor in him, the only thing she wanted to do was go and comfort him. Link stood stiffly to the side, and Zelda was sure he related to this man in some ways. After all, neither would speak, and she had watched Link struggle to form words to no avail before. It was heart-shattering to say the least.

“Agregor,” the Princess tried again. “I am going to give you some parchment and a writing utensil. Is that okay?”

The man did not react, only shivering as his helpless cries rang out. Zelda sighed softly, then looked up at the guardsmen.

“When was the last time he has eaten or drank?” She asked.

“We have food for him, but he refuses to eat anything. He drank water last night, but even then it was only a few sips. He’s definitely dehydrated, though,” one said, turning slightly to regard Agregor with pity in their eyes. “Look,” he continued. “His tearwells have run dry.”

It was true. Agregor was not crying as much as he was dry heaving, his lungs desperately gasping for breath as uncontained grief wracked his body, but no tears fell from his eyes. 

The Princess stood, her face pinched as she watched the figure in the corner continue to shake. The man did not appear Hylian anymore. He was weakened and shrunken into something less. A fear-riddled creature left bleeding when its prey decided it wasn’t hungry. He was an example. 

He was the message.

And that was all Zelda needed to know.

Her hands curled into fists, rage settling in her belly. Not for lack of cooperation, but towards the animals who had done this to him. And for what? To displace her from the throne? To disrupt a new peace that the province hadn’t seen in more than one hundred years? 

No. She couldn’t accept that. 

Zelda turned to the guards, her eyes steeled with resolve. They flinched under her intensity, but stood tall. “Send word to Gerudo Village if any information is retrieved. Notify the other race leaders, and call to order a quiet emergency. You both will speak of this to no one except Impa, and you will return to your homes and you will forget this situation while you are there. 

“This is not a game. Two of your brethren have been killed. Do you understand?”

The steadiness of her voice was what brought the full severity of the situation to the guards’ attention, and they stiffened visibly at her tone. “Yes, Your Highness,” they said.

Zelda turned once more to the figure curled up in the corner. Once more, she crouched down, her eye level meeting Agregor’s. “We will avenge you. We will avenge your friends,” she promised, hoping the determination in her eyes was enough to convince him.

Agregor only shook harder, but his gaze was steady and pleading.

Suddenly Link was by her side, and he reached around his side to his satchel. There was something burning in his own eyes that Zelda couldn’t quite place, but it was from the right values, she knew. He fished out a tome, one which she had become intimately familiar with when Link had become her appointed guard. 

_Hyrulian Sign Language,_ the spine read, and the knight pushed it gingerly through the wooden bars. Agregor, expectedly, did not react, but he glanced at the blond with confusion.

“All is not lost,” Zelda continued. “Your life was spared. Forget not how to live it.”

The Princess stood, and Link followed closely behind. Always three steps behind her, he was able to watch her now. But the way she carried herself was not the same way she had when she had approached the makeshift dungeon. It was with confidence and assuredness that her strides planted themselves in the soft woodland soil, and Link couldn’t help but feel a little awed by the sight.

Before him was not his Princess.

Before him was the Queen.

\---

“We will be making our way to Gerudo Village in the following three days,” Zelda explained as Link fastened the last few satchels onto Galen. 

Impa worried her brow. “There is no telling what is out there now, Princess. Are you sure it is wise to be roaming the province when danger could be lurking around any corner?”

Link stepped up then, standing dutifully at the Princess’s side. _No harm will come to her,_ he signed. _That was my charge._

Impa only grunted softly. 

“Link is arguably one of the most skilled warriors in all of Hyrule,” Zelda said. “I have no fear for the roads ahead of us.”

“I implore you to be cautious regardless. It would be foolish to walk these roads with full conviction now that we have seen what our enemy is capable of,” the old woman argued.

_The Sheikah Slate’s map will guide us around major roadways when possible,_ Link signed. _I guarantee the Princess’s safety._

“We will send word to you as soon as we reach Gerudo Village. Until you receive that, please notify the rest of the council what has been discovered thus far, and not to send out any more units to collect information,” Zelda ordered, turning to Galen. Link offered her his hand, and she took it.

“Not to? I understand that the one sent out barely came back alive, but doing nothing is worse, Your Highness,” Impa said, stepping towards the clydesdale as she gazed up at the monarch and her knight.

“We cannot risk the lives of others until we know what the threat is capable of. Link and I are heading to Gerudo anyway, which is where I believe their headquarters are. Assuming they are indeed the reincarnated Yiga Clan, it would only make sense that they rebuild near where their old hideouts were. We will send correspondence your way as soon as anything is found. Until then, please make sure that the general public sees none of this. Panic and attention is the last thing we want to draw to ourselves right now.”

“Of course, Princess,” Impa said reluctantly. “I will see to it that only council members and trusted advisors have contact with the warning sent out.”

Zelda was assisted into the saddle, and she brought her hood over her head. “Thank you, Lady Impa.”

“Of course, dear.” The Sheikah elder’s eyes crinkled with a wry smile. 

“For everything,” Zelda clarified as Link vaulted into the saddle behind her. “We will see to it that this comes to an end.”

“And what of the coronation?” Impa asked.

“Changing that would arouse suspicion. For now, nothing can be done, and it will be scheduled as planned.”

The village head sighed, her smile fading just slightly. “You plan to be Queen regardless?”

The Princess laughed dryly. “It has always been my destiny, has it not?”

“You will rule us well, child,” Impa said. “You rule us well as it is now.”

Zelda wasn’t sure how much the old woman knew that touched her, and she felt her features melt. “I can only hope I keep my people as happy as possible.”

Dorian stepped over - he and Cado had kept the townspeople back from gathering around the commotion in the middle of the streat - and bowed quickly in the Princess’s direction. “The stableman wishes to ask what you would like us to do with your horse.”

She felt a pang of guilt hit her squarely in the heart, and she bit her lip. Storm would have to stay here. Sending castlemen to collect him or having someone ride him to the castle may give away that she wasn’t already in Hyrule Castle if her ride away hadn’t already done so. It wasn’t a risk she was willing to take. “If you do not have room to keep him, cover him in mud and dark clay - head to tail - and have someone return him to Castle Town. If possible, however, if he could remain here until I fetch him, that would be ideal.”

Dorian bowed once more, then scrambled back over to where Cado was blocking the stableman.

Link’s arms slid around the princess briefly. _Ready?_ He signed, his hands tugging his hood up over his head right after.

She looked around, taking in the faces of the residents of Kakariko Village. In each of them, she saw the mind-numbing importance of each of their lives, and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt responsibility weigh as heavily on her shoulders as it had before the Calamity. Finally, though, she nodded, and Link took up Galen’s reins.

Impa waved them off, and the horse was spurred to a trot, heading towards the southern exit. Out of the corner of her eyes, Zelda spotted the dejected faces that Koko and Cottla wore, staring confusedly and dejectedly after them as the bay continued to ferry the two on his back out of the village.

Link had packed them up rather quickly upon her request when they had returned to the inn after their visit with Agregor. She had felt it strange that he had barely voiced an opinion on the matter since before they had tried to speak with the temporary-prisoner, and it greatly reminded her of how he had mindlessly taken orders before the Calamity. Even now, as they traveled at a canter down the path between Bonooru’s Stand and the Pillars of Levia he was faceless and silent. 

But she realized after a while that the quiet was not something borne of his old self, but instead something calculated. Once and awhile, a deer would dart out of a bush, or a bird would take off, and she felt his entire body stiffen for a moment as his head flicked towards the sound. Everytime Galen pricked his ears forward at something, the knight’s gaze would follow, and his eyes would linger on the spot long after the horse had decided there was nothing there to fear. 

An hour passed, and they had made it across Kakariko Bridge. The only sounds around them were the rush of wind as a storm approached, the trickle of water as it rushed beneath the bridge, Galen’s thunder of hooves, and their own slamming heartbeats.

An irrational fear had settled in Zelda’s gut the moment they had left the confines of Kakariko. She knew it was silly to think that they would encounter the enemy directly after learning something about them, and that the scouts that had been sent out were retrieved from afar, and nowhere nearby. There was nothing to suggest that the Yiga had come anywhere nearly as east as they were now, but that didn’t stop her from snapping her eyes towards anything that so much as rustled. 

Link would hear things that she didn’t, and she supposed that was just one of his sharpened senses from having fought and trained for so long, and it made her nervous when something caught his attention that hadn’t caught hers. 

It was at Fort Hateno that the silence was finally broken - a tense moment when they dismounted to allow Galen a moment of respite before finishing the final half of their journey. Link had led him to the small marsh that spotted the western side of the fort’s walls, and the horse had gratefully begun lapping it up.

“Are you okay?” It had been so quiet that the Princess barely heard herself say it, but Link’s ear twitched in her direction, and his full attention was brought to her.

He fidgeted with the reins in his hands, then threw them over Galen’s neck loosely. _Perhaps this trip was a bad idea._

Zelda had been thinking it, but seeing him say it made the disappointment a little more real. Her ‘plan’ for this week had been thrown so violently off-course that she had forgotten about it for the most part. Their peaceful and happy week off had turned into something sour rather quickly, and even though they technically still had three days before they were scheduled to officially head out for Gerudo Village, she couldn’t see themselves enjoying it the way they would have if they hadn’t learnt about their enemy.

She chewed on her lip anxiously, tugging the hood farther up on her head. “Perhaps. It is still possible, though, that no one knows that I have left the castle. At least no one we do not explicitly trust, that is.”

Link looked downwards, his eyes locking onto a stray stone. _We cannot rule out the possibility that people we believe are on our side may actually be against us._

“What makes you think that?” Zelda asked, her voice low.

_I would like to place my confidence in the leaders at the least, but we have also run into Beedle, and citizens of Kakariko Village knew you were there. Passersby may have heard about that as well - travelers who happened through. What I am trying to say is that word spreads regardless of who you reveal your identity to. Whether it spreads fast enough to endanger us with the time we have left before we move, however, we have yet to find out._

Zelda sighed. “Do you think that we should no longer stay at your house?”

Link shrugged. _I have every confidence I can keep you safe there. I also fully believe in the resolve of Hateno Village’s defense. We can also rest easy knowing that your appearance seems to have changed enough to make you less recognizable. I, on the other hand, seem to be drawing attention._

He was right. The Champion had traveled throughout most of Hyrule while he was still freeing the Divine Beasts. The Princess knew he had been helping others along the way - menial tasks and fetch quests that acquainted him with many of Hyrule’s denizens. It would have surprised her if half the population didn’t know what he looked like.

“What can we do?” She asked after a moment, mulling over the information.

Link’s eyes diverted, and he kicked the rock he had been staring at earlier. It plowed into a tree trunk on the other side of the path with a thwack, and disappeared into the foliage surrounding the base of the tree. When Zelda looked back at him, he raised his hands. _Like I said, I believe we are able to finish out your vacation in Hateno. Afterwards, however, it would be wise to start out to Gerudo. We can avoid the main roads by using the Sheikah Slate’s map, and I advise that we both make full use of our cloaks as we travel. It should not take more than one to two weeks to arrive there as long as we keep a consistent pace and the weather is kind to us._

_If > the weather was kind to them. When had fate, nature, anything been kind to them? His head snapped to her when he heard the sound of a dry chuckle. “What a mess this has become,” she whispered. Link was about to respond, but she continued. “People are being mauled and murdered all over again, we know little about it, and there is next to nothing we can do about it until we learn more or until it is upon us. Just like Before.”_

__

__

The knight’s jaw set, and he made long strides over to where she was squatted on the ground. He kneeled before her, his head bowed deeply, and she watched with furrowed brow. 

After a long moment, he met her gaze, and she was taken aback by the surge of emotions that welled in his blue eyes. _I will never make light of what happened Before, Zelda,_ he signed, _but now that we know how to deal with situations like these, we know better than to make the same mistakes._

She felt hot tears gather in her eyes, and she furiously wiped them away with the back of her hand. Link huffed out a laugh, smiling softly. 

_We brought peace to Hyrule again together. An ancient beast that raged through the lands for generations and generations was sealed away, and the people are safe. I know that by following you, we will bring the same results._ The tear dripped down her face, and Link gently brushed it away with his thumb. Let us do the same again.

“I love you,” she breathed, the helplessness she felt burning her chest. “I love you.”

It seemed to have caught him off-guard, but he recovered quickly as his chest squeezed. _I love you too,_ he signed after a moment, standing and offering her his hand. When she took it, and she was brought to her feet, his hands pulled back. _This was something we did not have Before, right? We have each other now in a different way. I will protect you the same._

Zelda wanted to argue that it hadn’t worked out Before. That they had made the same amounts of preparations for the Calamity that they would now, and it still ended badly one hundred years ago. But she held her tongue, because she trusted the man before her. He may not be exactly the same person as he was Before, but his soul was the same one she had fallen in love with. His intentions were still pure, still dutiful, still just, still fair, and she wanted everything to do with him. She wanted him to accompany her into this battle, and to leave it by her side. She wanted Link to be at the next conflict, to guide her, to protect her, but more than anything else she wanted to be there for him as well.

So instead of comparing what had happened one hundred years ago to now, she bit her tongue, she felt her lips curl into a sad smile, and she pulled him into a hug. This time, he was ready for the affection, and he squeezed her back tightly.

There was nothing that could stop them. 

There was nothing that could stop her.

They were going to make it this time.

They had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another kind reminder that there is only one pre-written chapter left that will be posted on the date I added in the beginning notes. There is nothing beyond that written, and I do not plan on forcing myself to write it out. Thank you for your support.


	15. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Realized that this was so chock full of spelling and grammar errors that it took me an entire extra day to edit! This is going on Hiatus; there is no predicted date for the next chapter.

The sun was beginning to set when they arrived back at Link’s House. Zelda, having been trying to break the tension that the ride carried with it, had not missed the opportunity to pick an easy target, teasing him about the sign out front. He had chuckled, his smile dry, and had walked Galen across the bridge. She was unpacked from his saddle within a few seconds, carrying a few of the lighter bags as the Champion vaulted down. He explained that he would come in in a few moments, and that he wished to remove Galen’s shoes and to reorganize a few of the saddle bags’ contents before bringing them inside.

She knew that he had thrown everything together rather quickly upon her sudden announcement that they would be leaving Kakariko Village almost as soon as they had returned to the inn they were staying in, so it didn’t surprise her that some things weren’t in the right place. Zelda did feel a little bad, though, about the amount of luggage that Galen was now carrying. In addition to three other bags he wasn’t previously responsible for, he also had another passenger. The clydesdale, though, didn’t particularly seem to care. When she mentioned her concerns to her knight, he had insisted that his mount had carried much more before, and assured her that she was as light as a feather when it came to the strength of the beast below them.

Now, standing in the lawn and foliage of Link’s house and her arms full of lighter satchels, she watched as Link quickly shed Galen’s saddle, and the horse obediently turned to wander towards the run-in shed of a stable off to the side.

“Why do you want to take off his shoes?” Zelda asked before he could get too far. 

_If he goes lame by throwing one on our journey to Gerudo Village, it will greatly delay our venture. I wish to give him a few days to get used to being barefoot again while we have this down time,_ the Champion had responded before bowing shallowly and scampering off.

She huffed out a sigh, glancing wearily around her before half-jogging up to the door. It creaked open, and she made to place the luggage onto the table before checking a few of his cabinets for matches to light lanterns with. 

It was chilly now, and the air had something of a bite to it. The house, being as well ventilated as it was, was apparently not very good at keeping the warmth in, and she shivered as she kicked the door closed as soon as enough lanterns were lit to illuminate the space. The glow of the candles and the orange light that shone through the windows from the setting sun set the open concept of the space awash in a gentle warmth, and the Princess found herself sighing deeply.

It was frustrating sometimes. At times like these, when the evening was growing closer, and a gentle breeze swept through the hills, and the gentle tapping of a branch against the outside of the walls, it felt like nature was deceiving her. There were people out for her kingdom. There were people out for her throne. But now, in this house, there was beauty and peace, and it was _deceiving_ her. Unforgivably so.

Zelda didn’t jump when Link entered a few minutes later. She should have, but the serenity of his house was all-encompassing. He swung four huge horseshoes from his fingers, but the rest of his composure was wary. The Champion still seemed sleep-deprived even though he had slept through the entirety of the night before, and it could be seen in the way the bags, although much lighter now, stubbornly clung underneath his eyes.

When he saw her standing there, simply watching him, he smiled softly, huffing out a breath before shuffling over. He set the heavy iron shoes onto the table and bent his neck slightly to kiss her on her forehead. Zelda felt her own smile spread across her face, and she melted into his touch as his hands briefly cupped her cheeks. They moved away quickly, though, and she mourned the loss.

 _Would you like something to eat?_ He signed. _I ran by the general store again before we left Kakariko and picked up some goat butter, so I can make you the hot buttered apples you were craving before if you want._

Her stomach, having been empty since the snack she had been given before they had set off back to Hatno, growled approvingly, and she laughed softly as she felt her cheeks burn sheepishly. “That sounds lovely.”

As Link lit the stoves, she curled up comfortably on his armchair and picked up the romance novel she had been working on. She was more than halfway through it now, and was thankful for the brief escape from reality that it allowed her. 

She wasn’t entirely sure why this situation had so unsettled her. It was the first time Zelda had been in danger before - she had been in the sticks with the Yiga one hundred years ago as well, even. At that time, their goals weren’t entirely known, and surely it was a coincidence that they happened to be going after the monarch now the same way they had been before. Link hadn’t failed her then, and she didn’t doubt him presently either. So why, then, was she so shaken?

The Princess hadn’t been naive enough to believe that the second she retook the throne that she and her people would live long, healthy, happy lives, but she had been doing her best to be the best she could be. It was frustrating that despite her efforts, there were still people unhappy with the way that she ruled, and it was especially irritating that it was by the same people it had been before. 

She desperately wanted to know why they were so upset. Had it been something she had done? And who’s to say that one hundred years ago it wasn’t her father that they had been angry with, and had only gone after her Before in order to hold leverage over him? Why now was it specifically her? Was it the family name? The bloodline?

Why?

The book was plucked from her hands, and having spaced out did not realize that it was taken from her, and struggled to catch the falling text that had not actually been falling. When she realized that her knight was standing in front of her, though, she looked up. Link gave her a strange look, the novel in his left hand and the hot buttered apple in the other. 

_Are you okay?_ His eyes asked for him, and the Princess shook her head. “Sorry, I was… thinking is all.”

Link narrowed his eyes at her, but offered her the plate. The fruit looked slightly darker, an even and deep maroon around the entire apple except at the top which looked a little crispier. The butter, generously poured over top, had a luster to it that deeply enticed the Princess, and she salivated as the plate was settled into her hands. 

“Thank you,” she said, offering a bright smile to which the knight flushed and nodded politely. As she picked up the fork left next to the food on the plate, she noticed that his hands were empty besides the book, and peeked over at the counter to find that no other buttered apple had been made. “Are you not having any?” She asked, eyeing him curiously.

He shook his head, peeking at the page she was at and briefly skimming over a few of the lines. Link marked the page and set it off to the side, propping himself backwards in one of the dining chairs to face her. _Not hungry,_ he signed after he was settled.

Zelda almost choked on her bite, and Link quickly yanked the plate out of her hands as she spluttered. 

_Take smaller bites!_ He gestured before furiously starting to cut up the rest of the apple with the flat side of the fork. As the Princess coughed, she felt like a child watching their mother prepare bite-sized pieces of some larger portion of food. 

She snagged the plate back indignantly. “You just caught me off-guard is all! When are you not hungry? You are always hungry!”

The Champion growled, but settled back to glare holes at the food on her plate as if it had personally offended him. _I am not now._

He hoped that she wouldn’t pry further. After learning about the Yiga and seeing what they had been doing, it had reminded him that there were times where survival had to be prioritised over living. After his Awakening, Link had to re-familiarize himself with the feeling of hunger, and having been in stasis for so long had messed with how he interpreted the ache in his stomach. Of course, it didn’t take long for him to realize that _oh, he was hungry,_ and that food would be a quick fix, but he still had found himself hoarding food whenever possible. 

There were times where he just… didn’t want to eat. Even when he was hungry, and had meals or ingredients in his satchel, he simply didn’t want to. Sometimes that feeling would last a few hours, and once it had even lasted a full week. It wasn’t deliberately starving himself, it was only the lack of desire to.

Now seemed to be one of those times. It would pass, of course. It always did. For now, though, he didn’t feel like explaining it.

It was clear that his excuse was feeble, and it was telling in her eyes that she didn’t believe it for a second, but thankfully she didn’t ask anything more about it. He did feel a little guilty, though, and took a bite from her fork when she shoved it in his face a moment later. 

_I will draw a bath for you,_ he signed after a few minutes, maneuvering himself out of the chair to stand. She watched him closely as he did, concern gnawing at her insides. She almost felt guilty eating in front of him, but he had taken the bite she offered him and refused a second, so she wasn’t sure what else she could do.

He left the bathhouse’s door open, and he disappeared around the corner. As Zelda finished off the last few bites of her desert (or dinner, really, since she wasn’t going to be hungry after this) she listened to the sound of water running. She sighed, frowning down at the final forkful of apple and popping it into her mouth. It melted on her tongue, and she satisfyingly hummed. 

Her knight had always taken such good care of her. Affection swelled in her chest at the thought, and she couldn’t help the giddy smile that cracked her features. Maybe it wasn’t an appropriate time to be feeling these things when a serious situation was upon them, but she knew that if she let it control how she lived her life she would only end up more miserable. 

Scurrying over to deposit the dishes into the sink, she absentmindedly found herself staring at the bandages around her finger from where the Princess had cut herself. Link had been diligent in replacing them that morning, insisting that even though the wound was not open it would be better protecting it. Zelda had thought it a little ridiculous, and was now tempted to unravel it. The Champion more than likely wouldn’t oppose since she was going into a bath, and she prayed as she began tugging at the bandages that he wouldn’t tie it back up when she got out. 

There was a sudden pressure against the back of her arms, running from her shoulders down to her wrists. Already on edge, she jerked away, panic surging through her only to be met with startled blue eyes when she whipped her head around. 

_Sorry,_ Link signed quickly, _I should not have done that._ He looked more than guilty, his form taking a few steps away until he was a respectable distance from her while his face flushed a little. 

As the Princess regained her sense of awareness, she blew out a breath. “No need to apologize. You scared me is all.” She smiled softly, swiftly coming towards him to tilt her head to the side and chastely press a quick kiss to his lips. 

His boyish blush only spread, and he pulled on his earring nervously before bringing his hands in front of him. _The bath is ready if you are._

Zelda turned to peek at the door to the bathhouse. Hot water against her tired muscles sounded like a damn good idea, but going in to soak alone didn’t seem completely ideal. So when she started striding towards it, unclasping her hood and tugging the tunic over her head, she was pleased to hear the choking sound Link made behind her as he quickly turned. 

She looked back at him and frowned. “That was an invitation, Link,” she said, and couldn’t help but giggle to herself at how his ears only burned brighter. “Are you going to pass it up?”

The knight seemed to use his entire body to process that information. First, his shoulders went a little rigid, then he exhaled sharply and clenched his fists at his side. Finally, his feet pivoted and he quickly maneuvered himself into her space. 

Breathless as she was slowly guided backwards by gentle hands as she waltzed them towards the bathhouse, he kept himself busy by laying his hands on the bare swell of her hips while she used her own dexterity to begin unclasping and unbuttoning the much more complex outfit he adorned. Her fingers slipped over one a few times, and he chuckled at the frustration evident in her expression. With more nimble fingers, he popped it open, poking at the cheek she had puffed out in retaliation. 

“Why do you wear so many buckles anyway?” Zelda pouted as they entered the threshold of the back room, humid and warm from the water heated by (unsurprisingly, at this point) a Great Flameblade.

 _Amor is not supposed to be easy to remove,_ he reasoned, pulling his hands back to allow her space to bring her braids across the crown of her head down. 

“Well, maybe it ought to be,” she mumbled, finally dragging the chestplate and tunic from off his body. The Princess didn’t hesitate to sprawl her hands across the skin now exposed to her, and she relished in how he shuddered beneath her touch as the pads of her fingers danced across the large scar across his chest.

 _That would defeat the purpose._ Despite how his hands could coherently still form words, he was panting a little, invading her space in a way that made it hard to actually see what he was trying to say. She too was short of breath, deciding that she didn’t want to continue the conversation for fear that he would move his hands from her hips to respond again. There was an inferno beneath the pads of his fingers, and she arched into encouragingly as her back was pressed against a wooden wall.

A quiet yelp left her mouth when her bare back was met with splinters, and Link jerked backwards at her response. It took him a moment for him to realize what was wrong, and she assured him a few times that it was just the wall, and not anything that he had done. 

After taking a breath, she hesitantly cupped his face again, placing a kiss on his lips once more. His arms wound around her, but she smiled against him, and slipped away teasingly. “We are here to bathe,” she said resolutely, bending down to loosen the ties of her boots and toe them off. Her jods followed suit quickly after, and when she glanced up at the knight only to find him staring a little dumbfoundedly. The moment it processed through her head that she was unabashedly stripping in front of him, heat began radiating from her face. 

“S-sorry,” she stammered, unsure of what she was actually apologising for.

Link, as if aware of himself for the first time in the past few minutes, clamped his jaw that had been hanging open shut, his own blush curling up his cheeks. They shared another rather awkward _oh, we’re in this situation_ moment, before Zelda finally broke into a fit of giggles. 

“We will get better at this,” she laughed, shyly approaching him.

As the Champion’s own chuckles subsided, he could only nod. “Yeah.”

It was so quiet that she almost missed it. It was raspy and cracked at the end, but she recognized the deep tone as it whispered past her long ears in the short distance between them. Zelda gawked at him, and it was her turn for her jaw to hang slack, and Link clapped a hand over his mouth instinctively. 

Only his actions weren't out of embarrassment. No, they were out of elation. His eyes grew wide, and there was childish excitement in them, and when the deep ocean blues found her own irises, it was as if something had simply been solidified by her acknowledgement.

Maybe it was ridiculous that such a milestone had occurred when he was half naked, his partner fully naked, and in an uncomfortably humid bathhouse behind his cheap home, but it didn’t stop the squeal that left her throat as she threw herself in his direction and wound her arms around his neck.

“Holy fuck, Link!” Zelda cried, her golden hair whipping him in the face as she was launched into his arms. He caught her quickly, forgetting to chide her for her language while he barked out a surprised laugh and spun her around a few times. Her beam cast sunrays onto him when he finally pulled back enough to get a good look at her face, and he couldn’t help but squint into the light of her expression. Her forehead tapped his, the tips of their noses brushing. “What did you do differently?”

Overconfident, he opened his mouth, but, expectantly, nothing came out. The high of having succeeded just moments before though was rushing too strongly through his system, and he did not waver when he instead just shrugged.

The rest of the bath was full of giggles and theories passed around by the scholar, and Link had to physically stop her from running to go grab a journal. 

_You have notes on me?_ He had asked with a strange look on his face.

“Well, yes,” Zelda had replied with an equally quizzical expression, as if the idea of not having notes on her significant other and personal guard was itself peculiar.

Link was careful when he cleaned her back, taking note to scowl at the little red lines that had been shallowly scratched into her skin from pressing her up against the bathhouse’s wall. He told himself he would get rid of those later. Not that he had plans to push her up against them again (although that thought wasn’t entirely unwelcome), but simply because he would hold a grudge against the tiny wooden spikes whenever he saw them again.

The Princess spent an awful long time detangling his hair and scrubbing hair oil and soap into it, much to her knight’s protest. “It will get unruly if you do not properly care for it,” she exclaimed, combing her fingers through it roughly.

 _When has it-_ he was jerked backwards at a particularly sharp yank, and he cast a disapproving side glance at her from the corner of his eye. _When has it ever been anything other than unruly?_

“You are right,” she conceded, her actions continuing. “But if you did care for it, you would have beautiful hair.”

Link sighed, lifting one of his sidelocks to glare at it. It had only been a few weeks since the Princess had cut it in Zora’s Domain, but already there were split ends and general disarray in only the few strands he held between his index and thumb. He didn’t need beautiful hair to win in a fight. In fact, keeping it at this length was somewhat ideal. It wasn’t easy to grab like this, and it rarely got in his way. Only if he was shooting a bow from midair would his side locks sometimes blow into his eyeline, but he hadn’t done much of that recently anyways. Besides, he could always just slip on his bandana from his climbing gear, and it’d be more or less pinned in place next to his ears.

It took an inordinate amount of time for Zelda to finally be satisfied with the product, happily smoothing her fingers through the dirty blonde locks. “There,” she sang. “All better.”

The Champion, having gone through agonies he never wished to experience again, vowed to either continue treating his hair so that he would never have to go through this again, or to simply cut it all off if all else failed.

“You are so dramatic,” she huffed when he expressed his disdain. 

He fetched them sleepwear once they were done, and Zelda slipped into the comfort of her night dress. As she was exiting the bathhouse, she had realized that for the long while that they had been in there, she hadn’t once thought about the overarching responsibility that was beginning to weigh her down all over again in Gerudo Village.

Stubbornly, she shook her head. They had three days. Three days left of normalcy before she had to worry about that. Ascending the stairs two at a time while Link went to go put the Great Flameblade back into his satchel, it was as she was beginning to dig through her satchel in search of her journal that she was met with the second damning thing she had almost forgotten about. At the bottom of the leather bag was a phial of red liquid, but it wasn’t the same cherry color that Link’s health elixirs were. In fact, it was just a shade too deep to be orange, and she frowned at it while she tried to decipher what it was. 

But it hit her. It hit her like a carriage. 

How had she forgotten about it? It had been sitting on the coffee table brewing for the past two days, and she had been the one to be managing its production. Thank the goddesses Link had remembered that, because given her hurry this morning to get the hells out of Kakariko she hadn’t even given it a passing thought.

She picked up the contraceptive elixir with shaky hands, as if it was going to bite at her or something. It sloshed thickly against the glass encasing, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. The instructions said to take it the same time every day, but how long until it took effect?

Zelda thought that she would very rather throw herself off the nearest cliff than go back and ask Reede, but she also couldn’t just… not know. That could be dangerous.

The stairs creaked behind her, and her face burned when she turned around to see her knight standing a few paces behind her. It was a little unnerving how his face remained completely neutral, but it was like he had to forcefully snap his eyes from the bottle in her hands to her face.

 _I packed it as carefully as I could. It did not crack, did it?_ He signed as he cautiously approached, a loose undershirt and comfortable pants slipped on.

He crouched when he reached her, and she shook her head. “No, I was just… I was just wondering how long it takes to be effective,” Zelda responded, avoiding his eyes.

_Did it even have time to finish?_

“I mean, it had a full forty-eight hours. Do you think I should put it back on a brewing stand?”

He shrugged. _I am not the expert in this._

Ironically, he was the one making miracle-elixirs that mended dislocations, broken bones, and, well, any injury really, so it didn’t make sense that he would say that. But then again, this was a whole different animal, and a lot of things could go wrong if it was done improperly.

The Princess felt a surge of impulsivity rush through her, and before she could really understand what she was doing, she uncorked the phial and took a few swigs. Link stared at her with wide eyes, but made no move to stop her. When her lips detached from the top, she gagged a little at the sour taste, and her knight leaned forward with concern.

“Citrusy,” she rasped, “no big deal.”

Gingerly, the cork was replaced, and Link frowned as he took it from her. He jumped up, suddenly, though, giving her little warning. _Have to check the time,_ he signed quickly before rushing downstairs. Zelda wasn’t sure why he didn’t just look at the clock on his shelf, but realized quickly that there simply wasn’t one on the shelf. In fact, the more she looked around, the more absent of personal items like that were missing.

She hadn’t noticed before, but the only things decorating his walls were his windows and the other Champions’ weapons. There were no paintings or memorabilia, and no pointless little trinkets on his desk or cluttering the bookshelves. Of course, he had an entire collection of books downstairs, but beside that, the house was… almost devoid of personality. He had told her once that he hadn’t even done the interior decorating, and she wondered just how much of this space was really his. Zelda had to give him credit though, because the home was completely functional. There wasn’t a single thing that might hinder one’s ability to live in it. There was a bed, enough lanterns and candles to light up the whole area, curtains on a few of the windows that were low enough to need them, a functioning kitchen (albeit small and a little haphazardly thrown-together), a dining table, an armchair, and most importantly a bathhouse. What more could he want, really?

It was a little sad, though. The Princess recalled all one hundred or so of her research journals lining her shelves and sitting stacked in a disorganized manner in the darker corners of her study, but it hadn’t all been for one-purpose. She also had pots of flowers and a cactus in there, and it didn’t matter if the Silent Princess was part of the experiment to domesticate them because it still looked pretty on her windowsill. There was also a carpet she had bought in Gerudo not long ago that had piqued her interest when passing by the cart. There were also paintings - one from a man named Pikango that Link had introduced her to after they had sealed Calamity Ganon away. It wasn’t very good, but it brought a smile to her face.

To live in a space meant to occupy it not only in body, but also in personality, and her heart ached that Link just… didn’t seem to have any of that. Three days wasn’t enough to fill it, though, but she made herself a promise that as they continued she would help him find things to bring this space to life. 

The sound of the Champion’s footsteps coming up the stairs had her turning, and he raised his hands. _19:30,_ he signed, flipping the satchel’s flap back over and securing the fastens. 

“Help remind me if I forget?” She asked, her eyes shyly straying from his.

Link only smiled softly, a warmth from it that the Princess wished she could bask in for the rest of eternity. He nodded, then leaned in to press a firm kiss against her forehead, petting her hair for a moment before bringing himself to his feet.

 _I know we just got back from Kakariko, but we ought to talk to Purah before we leave. If nothing else, just to say hello. She will never let us live it down if we do not._ Link’s hand was reached out towards her, his palm up in an invitation. 

She gently placed her own into his grasp, and brushed herself off slightly as she rose to her feet. “It seems a little strange that we plan on having an… adult conversation with a person who is physically very young.”

She is much, much older than us, he reasoned as he threw himself onto the bed. _I think she can handle a little grown-up talk._

“Oh, I do not doubt she can handle it. I only dread her reaction to it.”

He chuckled at her comment as she curled up next to him, and he sat up a little to tuck her beneath the sheets. The Princess giggled as she was wrapped warmly in the furs, but she knew that even though the weather was getting a little chillier, she would have to detangle herself from this mess eventually when she overheated. 

“Don’t you want something to sleep under as well?” She asked, her head the only thing visible from the burrito he had imprisoned her in.

Link shook his head. _I run hotter anyway._

It was true. She had run (completely, entirely, not-at-all-questionably) humane experiments when he had told her when they were traveling through the Hebra mountains that he only needed the Rito headdress to keep warm. She had thought he was joking until he had removed his shirt for three hours, and came down with no frostbite. A week and three days worth of poking and prodding the knight had yielded that he did, in fact, run a hotter temperature than most people. Why that was, she wasn’t sure, but it didn’t impact his health, so having gotten the results she wanted she released him from her experiments. 

There was a sensation of safety, though, when one was wrapped up in something. It was psychological in nature, or at least that was what a tome Zelda happened to pick up one hundred years ago had said. Having a barrier between you and whatever else was supposedly a way to ease panic attacks as well, but one thing she had noticed about Link was that for as many situations that he had managed to pull himself out of, claustrophobia was something he struggled a bit with. It wasn’t dramatic in the least. In fact, it was so mild that Zelda wondered if it had been claustrophobia at all, or just a fear of being trapped in general. She confirmed it, though, as they were working their way through a cave once, and he had to take a break halfway through, claiming his head was spinning from the tight confines. 

As Link stroked soothing fingers through her hair, she hummed contentedly. Something occurred to her as sleep began pulling heavily at her eyelids, though. He jerked backwards when she sat up abruptly, pulling her arms out of the warm bundle he had tied her up in. “Will you be able to sleep?”

The Champion blinked a few times to will away the surprise at her jolt, but as soon as her question had processed through his head, he shrugged. _I do not want to grow dependent on it._

Zelda frowned. “Taking it thrice will not make you dependent on it, Link.”

He smiled, huffing out a laugh before flopping down onto his back. _I will be fine. Do not worry._

“We will not have this conversation again,” she said, her face growing serious. “Not sleeping is not a solution.”

 _I will be fine,_ he repeated, her eyes meeting her with the same amount of amusement as before. That ticked her off, actually, but she didn’t say anything. _Besides,_ he continued. _You help._

She knew that wasn’t entirely true given that she had been sharing the inn’s bed with him when he was staying up all night the first day they had spent in Kakariko, but the intent behind it was clearly heard, and it was sweet of him to say. Zelda huffed indignantly, her cheeks warm as laid back down.

He turned his head, and found that if he leaned forward just a little that their foreheads could touch, and he smiled as he bumped her. The hand not pinned beneath her weight curled around his neck to softly pet the long strands of hair at the base of his neck, and he closed his tired eyes at the feeling. She noticed then that he had neglected to pull out his ponytail, and she chuckled as she carefully unraveled the blue ribbon. 

“I cannot imagine that is very comfortable,” she whispered into the dying light of the room. She wondered why she felt so tired. It wasn’t even that late. They still had to put out the lanterns before they slept as well, or the oil would go to waste, and there could be a fire hazard.

Link’s shoulders shrugged, but his lips curled upwards in a dopey, lopsided smirk, and the emotion that swelled through Zelda was almost enough to make her swoon. 

The knight almost whined when she unraveled herself and stood a few moments later, immediately missing the soothing sensation of her fingers against the base of his neck. She laughed, shaking herself free of the many tangles of the furs, and kissed him on the forehead before speaking. “I am just going to put out the oil lamps and candles so we do not burn your house down.”

Link didn’t look any more pleased with that answer as anything else she could have offered, and he watched her as she scampered down the loft’s stairs to turn the knobs on the lanterns. Fortunately, there were only three on the lower level, and just the one on the second, so she was back within a few minutes. He found contentedness once more as she flopped back down onto the stiff mattress and curled into the furs once more. She wasn’t as tucked in as she was before, but the Champion bit his tongue in favor of savoring her warmth beside him.

As early as it was, Zelda could feel the pull of exhaustion in her bones. She told herself that it would be better to wait until Link got to sleep first, but she was all too comfortable here, and she felt her eyelids’ weight. Her knight could only smile softly as her breaths evened out, and he tenderly tucked some falling strands of golden hair behind her long ears. His hand settled at her waist, and he pulled her close, and he finally allowed the burden of their situation process.

He had been avoiding thinking about it until now, favoring instead the rule of normalcy that she had requested at the beginning of the week. However, they had gone so far astray from that now that it was about as chaotic as the stresses at the castle were, and he wondered if it was worth even pretending at this point.

But yes, he decided, it was worth it. Because as far as the rest of Hyrule was supposed to know, Princess Zelda was still in Hyrule Castle. Shut away within the confines of her room and her study planning her coronation to happen within three months. 

The images of the man from that morning suddenly flashed before his eyes, and he involuntarily bristled at the image. He had done his best not to react, but really, it wasn’t that hard. Something in him told him that he had seen worse, but he couldn’t recall what or when. It was still hard, though, looking upon a man so broken by fear and pain. Stripped away to the most basic of instincts and nothing more. He hoped that the man found hope in the Hylian sign language book that Link had left for him, but he had a feeling that after having been through what Agregor had that the book would likely mean nothing. 

It was still unclear what the Yiga’s intentions were. Things weren’t adding up. If they wanted to dethrone the Princess, why? And why go so far as to capture and torture scouts? It didn’t make sense that the Sheikah were victims of opportunity. Wouldn’t staying hidden and unknown have been a better option? It was clear that they had wanted to be discovered, but why go so far as to subdue and torture them? They could have easily let all three live, and sent them back to Impa carrying injuries to let Hyrule know that they were willing to resort to violence, but they had instead painted themselves as unjust executioners. 

The thought that these people were the ones going after the Princess made his blood boil, and he would die before he let any one of them touch her again. They had almost hurt her one hundred years ago, and he would be damned before he ever let something even remotely close to that happen once more.

Zelda shifted in the Champion’s arms slightly, and he realized with dismay that he had accidentally been gripping her. His hold loosened, and she mumbled something beneath her breath before relaxing again, the furrow that had knotted her brow in her slumber coming undone.

This wouldn’t help him sleep. He needed to think about something else.

Better yet, he needed not to think at all.

So instead of analyzing the day’s events and what the damning amount of discoveries they had uncovered within the past twenty-four hours, he allowed his eyelids to fall. Focusing on the warmth of her body next to him, Link was successfully able to allow his mind to wander into much happier places, and eventually he too fell victim to unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for following this up until this point. Thank you all for the support, and I hope you can forgive all of my inconsistency. I will probably be writing for other fandoms in the future, but definitely not something as prolonged as this. This has been a trip, and I couldn't be happier that I've had the opportunity to share it with you all. One last time, thank you :).
> 
> PS; please do not remove horse's shoes just because you want to. If a horse has been shod its whole life, please keep it shod (unless putting it into retirement in a field or something). Horseshoes are not something that you should rip off simply because you want to, and please consult your farrier before doing so to your own.

**Author's Note:**

> This is was supposed to just be a 10k fluff + smut, but I've just surpassed 150k words with no end in sight, so I'll be throwing it on here. This is my first work on this site, so please be gentle. I figured that keeping 150k words worth of fic to myself and thinking hard about what these kids must have gone through after playing the game was too much to contain, so here I am with it. I'll be updating tags and stuff as I go, but here's what I got so far. I also apologize in advance since English is not my first language, so as many hours I spend doing my best to check over my grammar and spelling, errors are gonna slip through lol.


End file.
